


Opera of the Wasteland

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (doesnt last long, Angst, Blood and Violence, Fluff, Fromis_9 Ensemble - Freeform, I really don’t know how to tag this, M/M, Minor Character Death, Road Trip!, Slow Burn, Zombie Apocalypse, jaemin arsonist, lil bit of both, mark and jisung are siblings!, mark go zzzzz, minor renhyuckmin, some other groups make cameos, someone gets shot TT, theyre the real heroes of this story actually, two truths one lie!, uhhhh, writing this felt like an eternity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 45,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25979350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: some would assume being in the middle of a zombie apocalypse would be pretty time consuming— mark lee disagrees, because somehow in the middle of the world ending, he falls in love.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin, Lee Jeno/Mark Lee
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	Opera of the Wasteland

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> so after 5 months, this little bitch is here! this really was a labor of love and i’d really like to thank my gf k, they helped me so much throughout this entire writing journey, i couldn’t have done it without them. it’s why this fic is a gift!! i love you to the moon and back baby :]
> 
> other thanks go to kayla, who’s also been hyping me up since i can first remember!! and everyone in winx club gc too yall are so supportive :] and i cant forget writer gc!!! yall have been so nice i feel lile a Writer itsnwow
> 
> ALSO SHOUTOUT TO ROSELIA FOR RELEASING OPERA OF THE WASTELAND ITS A GOOD SONG GO STREAM
> 
> without further ado, please enjoy opera of the wasteland :]

“Mark? You okay?”

Mark isn’t okay. His leg is throbbing after someone bashed it with a lead pipe, leaving a fairly obvious trail of blood behind him for anyone to follow. He’s also dehydrated and starving, but he’ll survive. “Yes Jisung, I’m alright.”

Jisung fidgets with his backpack straps nervously. “Are you sure? I can carry you if you want.” Mark puts his hand up to stop him, shaking his head stubbornly. “No, I’m too heavy for you anyways.” Jisung pouts as they walk through the forest together, pushing out any leaves or branches in their way. “I’ve been getting stronger, you know. I’ve got muscle!” He flexes, but Mark finds it hard to tell due to his big orange hoodie. He laughs, Jisung never failing to brighten up any day in the apocalypse. 

“Sure you do, kiddo.” He snorts. Jisung rolls his eyes and trudges on, never walking too fast so Mark can stay close behind. 

“Woah, Mark. Look.” Jisung tugs on his sleeve and points up ahead, to where a big house stands. It's old and decrepit, many of the windows boarded up with planks and looking like it’s been sitting in the weather and sun for hundreds of years. “Shelter. We can rest there and check for supplies.” Mark gasps, leaning up against a tree. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Jisung presses, slinging one of Mark’s arms over his shoulder. “Yes. Besides, we ran out of medical supplies a while ago anyways. Let’s just hope there’s some in there.”

They stagger their way towards the house, checking through the windows for anyone inside. The sun beats down on them, making it harder for them to walk faster. It seems to be empty so Mark turns the doorknob and slowly opens the door, stepping inside. He winces when the floorboards immediately creak under his feet. “Jesus. How old is this house?” Mark whispers. They stepped into the front room, gagging at the old smell. It smelled grossly of dust and sweat, covered in cobwebs from standing alone for so many years. “My guess is about 200 years.” Jisung snorts, turning the corner and coming across a creaky old staircase. “Jisung, you explore upstairs while I check downstairs. If anything bad happens, you know the signal.”

Jisung nods and carefully ascends the staircase, taking out a flashlight and shining it across the top floor. Mark turns and walks down a hallway, coming across a kitchen and dining room. He’s surprised by the modern appliances inside, a fridge, microwave, and stove all together. He limps towards the fridge and opens it, frowning when he sees it’s practically empty. There’s a half eaten apple core and a loaf of bread inside, likely not being touched in a while. He shrugs and takes the bread, shoving it in his bag. He shuts the door and checks the cabinets, gasping when he finds medical kits and canned food.

He starts to shove some into his backpack before he freezes when he feels the unmistakable feeling of a gun being pressed against his head. “Don’t. Move.” A voice commands. “Turn around with your hands in the air so I can see you.” It’s firm, pressing the gun harder against him. Mark sighs and drops the stuff he’s holding and puts his hand in the air, slowly turning around to face who’s threatening him. He winces when he turns around and is kindly greeted with a bright flashlight being flashed in his face. 

“Who are you?” They demand, gun still aimed towards his head. Mark reaches into his back pocket and whips out a pistol, pointing it in their direction. “I could be asking you the same thing.” He snarls. He knows he doesn’t look that intimidating right now, he’s trembling like a leaf. “Wait- holy shit.” They step forward and shine the light directly in his eyes, pulling at his mouth and examining his teeth. Mark starts to protest when the flashlight is suddenly shut off and he can finally get a good look at the gunsman. He looks like he’s about his age, with brown unkempt hair and sparkling eyes that shine in the dark. “You’re human.” He gasps. “You’re human!”

He suddenly gets pulled into a tight hug, crushing his ribs and lungs. “You’re choking me.” He croaks, gasping when he’s finally let go. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just- we haven’t seen another human in so long.” His hand lingers on Mark’s shoulder, wiping off some dust off. Mark slowly lowers his pistol. “We?” He nods, taking a step back away from him to give him space. “Yep, I’m not the only one who lives here. There’s 4 more of us, but they’re out on a supply run right now. We call this rotting piece of wood home.” Mark hums, studying his face. “There’s someone with you, right? I thought I heard some footsteps upstairs.” He asks, tilting his head curiously.

Mark nods. “That’s my brother, Jisung. You didn’t hurt him, did you?” He sneers, hand tightening on his pistol. “Oh no, I haven’t gone upstairs yet. I came to look for you first.” He sticks his hand out for Mark to shake with a smile. “I’m Jeno, by the way.” Mark nervously shakes it. “Mark. It’s...nice to meet you?” His eyes crinkle up into crescents when he grins, weirdly making Mark’s chest feel fuzzy. Maybe it’s the bloodloss. Mark thinks it’s the bloodloss.

He teeters to one side and groans, holding himself up using the counter. “You’re hurt. You didn’t get bit, did you?” Jeno whispers, crouching down to examine his leg. Mark feels woozy as he takes a deep breath. “No, just a...bad accident with some raiders and a lead pipe. I’ll be fine.” Jeno gives him a skeptical look and shakes his head, ushering him to sit down at the dining room table. He props his leg up and makes quick work, cleaning the wound and wrapping it up in bandages. “You didn’t have to do that.” Mark whispers quietly. “It’s a waste of your resources.” Jeno snorts, walking towards the sink and washing his hands. “Weren’t you just about to steal our supplies anyways?”

Mark holds his hands up defensively. “Well, that’s different. Now I know there’s 5 of you and now I feel bad.” Jeno sighs and wipes his hands on his pants. “Really, it’s not a problem. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.” Mark rests his chin on his palm and smirks. “Pretty? Flirting after putting a gun to my head? Those are some bold moves Jeno.” Jeno’s face turns bright pink, sputtering out a response. “I- Uh- I mean- I didn’t- wait a minute-“ Mark laughs a soft laugh, echoing throughout the kitchen. Jeno thinks it’s a pleasant noise. “I’m just teasing you.” 

“Oh.”

The redness doesn’t leave Jeno’s cheeks, making Mark smile. He hears the staircase creak, Jisung stepping into the room shortly after. “Mark? I didn’t find much upstairs, it was just- Woah. Who the fuck are you?” He glares at Jeno and steps in front of Mark protectively. “Oh, Jisung. This is Jeno, we can trust him, don’t worry. He’s human too.” Jeno smiles and waves, but Jisung shoots him a suspicious glance. He crouches down to Mark’s eye level and holds his hand. “Are you okay?” Mark nods, gently squeezing his hand. “I’m fine.” Jisung opens his mouth to say something but stops when he hears a car pull up outside.

Jeno looks up and makes his way towards the front door, sending the siblings a glance over his shoulder. “Looks like you two get to meet the others.” He leaves the room and Jisung turns back towards Mark with a huff. “Are you sure you’re okay? Did he try to hurt you? Do I need to shoot him?” Mark shakes his head, putting his hands on his shoulders. “Jisung, it’s fine, I swear. He helped me, if it wasn’t for him I’d still be leaking blood everywhere.” Jisung still doesn’t seem to be convinced, crossing his arms distastefully. “Alright.”

The volume in the room suddenly increases when more people enter the house, laughter filling the air. Someone walks into the kitchen and sets a box on the counter, not even paying attention to them. “And then he went ahead and spi— Oh. Hello.” They freeze one they turn around, staring at the two huddled in the corner. Mark waves awkwardly, and they nod politely before running out of the kitchen. “Jeno! Can you come here?” There’s a series of loud footsteps that stop right outside the kitchen, and harsh whispering Mark can’t decipher. Jeno pokes his head inside. “Would you….like to meet everyone?”

Mark and Jisung glance at each other awkwardly before nodding. Jeno disappears and walks back in with 4 others in tow, Mark concluding these are the other people he was talking about. “Everyone, this is Mark and Jisung! Mark, Jisung, this is Renjun, Chenle, Jaemin and Hyuck.” He points to everyone as he names them, Mark recognizing Jaemin as the one that ran out earlier. Jisung steps in front of Mark, trying his best to look intimidating. “Hi.” He mumbles, glaring everyone down. Chenle grins and holds his hand out towards Jisung. “Hello! It’s nice to meet you!” Jisung looks between Chenle’s face and his hand, not doing anything. Chenle awkwardly puts his hand down. Renjun snorts and rolls his eyes. “What’s your business here? We can easily outnumber you if we wanted to.”

Mark gently pushes Jisung out of his way. “We got attacked and were running out of supplies so we came here to hopefully rest and stock up. We didn’t know there were other people living here, honestly.” Hyuck steps forward, looking down at Mark. “Yeah, right. What kind of abandoned houses are fully stocked without anyone living in them?” Jisung shrugs. “You’d be surprised.”

Mark shifts awkwardly in the chair he’s sitting in. “We can leave, if you want. We don’t want to trouble you.” Jaemin finally pipes up. “But you’re hurt! We can’t just let you walk out there where it’s dangerous!” Renjun jabs him in the stomach with his elbow. “Yes we can. That’s two more mouths to feed!” He hisses angrily. “But Renjun!”

They all huddle around together, whispering to each other aggressively. They break apart and Jeno smiles at Mark, stepping closer towards him. “Would you like to stay with us? You two look tired and hungry, and we have plenty of food to go around. We couldn’t just let you walk out into the wasteland without a meal in your stomach.” Jisung leans into Mark’s ear. “Are we sure we wanna do this?” He whispers skeptically. “I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? We’be already had practically the worst happen to us, what’s another risk?” Jisung seems like he wants to argue, but he just sighs and shrugs nonchalantly. Mark nods and smiles at Jeno, reaching for his hand. “I think we might take you up on that offer.”

Jeno looks very happy as he squeezes Mark’s hand, turning towards his friends. “How about we get started on lunch and you two can get settled in?” Renjun huffs and turns his attention towards the kitchen, moving his back towards them. Chenle bounds up to the two and grins. “We usually eat in the living room! I can help you move if you’d like.” He offers happily. “Ah...that’s alright, I can walk myself.” Mark stands up and winches when he puts pressure on his leg, grabbing onto Jisung for support. “You know what? Nevermind. Where’s the living room?” Mark slings his arms across Chenle and Jisung’s shoulders, limping towards the living room. He sighs happily as he sits down on the couch, setting his leg up against the cushions.

Jisung sits next to Mark and curls up in his side, humming when he gently pinches his ear. “You okay, kiddo?” Mark says, wrapping an arm protectively around him. Jisung shakes his head. “I’m nervous.” He murmurs. “We….haven’t met nice humans in years so….I’m rather skeptical I guess.” Mark nods, moving to play with his cheeks. “Mhm, I know where you’re coming from, bub. Let’s just hope this time is different.” 

They sit close together as everyone prepares lunch, whizzing past them in the kitchen. Jaemin appears shortly after with two plates full of food in hand, gracefully handing them to them. Mark whispers a quiet thank you before he nods and disappears back into the kitchen. Soon everyone comes together in the living room, sitting in a circle with their own plate of food. “So, Mark, Jisung, welcome to our humble abode! It’s a little rough around the edges, but we like to call it home here in the apocalypse.” Jeno says, smiling warmly. 

“We really can’t thank you enough for your hospitality.” Mark murmurs, nodding politely at him. Jeno shrugs. “It’s the least we can do for pointing a gun at your head.” Renjun rolls his eyes and sighs. “It’s the least you can do. We weren’t present.” Jeno jabs him in the stomach with an elbow and shoots him a glare. “Be quiet! I hope you two can make yourselves feel comfortable here.” Jisung cracks a grin, the first real one in a while. “Dig in! Renjun’s an amazing cook.” Chenle chirps, already in the process of shoving food into his mouth.

“I just work with what we can get our hands on.” He says, a small blush on his cheeks. Donghyuck pinches his ear with a huff. “Don’t downgrade yourself, if you do it one more time I’ll have your knee caps for dessert.” He warns grumpily. He’s right, the food Renjun had prepared is amazing, even with their limited resources of canned food and stuff that’s probably stale. Mark swears he’s eaten a meal that fast, his stomach had been crying for a meal for days. “So, everyone’s got a story out here in the wasteland. What’s yours?” Donghyuck asks the brothers as he pushes some food around his plate. Jisung blows his bangs up and sighs, leaning back against the couch. “We were in California when the virus first hit, away from home and our parents. Ever since then we’ve been scrounging around to survive. We tried to find places to stay for awhile, but it never ended up working out.” 

Mark shifts so he’s resting his head on Jisung’s shoulder. “It’s a miracle we’re still alive at this point.” Chenle nods curiously. “What….happened to your leg?” He glances at Mark’s leg warily, eyes full of concern. Mark groans. “Jisung, you tell this story please.” Jisung chuckles and pokes his nose, clearing his throat to recount their journey.

—————————————————————————————

Mark and Jisung crouch behind a half broken wall, eyeing the abandoned department store not too far in front of them. “Do you think it’s empty?” Jisung whispers. Mark shakes his head and drops his voice low. “Probably not. At least I hope so.” They tiptoe towards the entrance and slip inside, moving past the shattered doors and lines of knocked over shopping carts. The lights are still on, casting a dim light on the entire store. They move past the empty clothing area and straight for the old pharmacy and food section. To their surprise, not everything is gone. “Do you wanna split up? You take the food and I take the medical supplies?” Mark asks quietly. Jisung gives him a thumbs up. “Alright, you know the signal kiddo.”

They go off in their two separate directions, Mark investigating the medicines. There’s a bunch of pills and supplements Mark doesn’t understand, even some Flintstones gummies that managed to stay untouched. He laughs at the thought. He finds the bandages and first-aid kits, although most of what’s left is Band-Aids. He goes to reach for some Mickey Mouse Band-Aids when he hears metal scraping loudly against the floor. He freezes, whipping around anxiously. He doesn’t see anyone around, and it can’t be Jisung. He considers calling out to him, but he doesn’t want to put him in danger. He takes the box and screams when he realizes there’s someone next to him. “Hello there!” They say, swinging at his head with a bat. Mark manages to duck in time, letting it hit the shelves. He ducks and runs away, putting his fingers to his mouth and letting out 3 sharp whistles. 

Jisung immediately comes running, dropping all of the stuff in his hands. “Mark!” He screams as Mark runs into him. “What happened?” Mark pants, pointing back towards the aisle. “We’re in danger.” Jisung blinks as he pats him on the back. “What?” Suddenly, they’re surrounded on all sides by masked figures, all brandishing weapons. They all wore animal masks, Mark recognizing the tiger-masked one as the one who swung a bat at him. All of their exits were blocked. “Jisung, stay close.” Mark whispers to him, taking his hand. Jisung moves his hand to the bat in his backpack. 

“Who might you two be?” A bear mask asks, slinging the pipe he’s holding over his shoulder. “No one.” Mark replies, trying to keep his voice steady. Bear mask hums, starting to pace in a circle around them. “This is our store, ya know. You’re not allowed in here.” He says, smashing the tile next to Mark’s foot. Jisung flinches, hiding his face in Mark’s shoulder. “I don’t see your name on it.” Mark retorts, holding his head high. Bunny mask raises his hand. “We graffitied the outside with our symbol, I think that counts.” Mark thinks back and remembers the diamonds spray painted on the walls. Fuck. 

“You were trying to steal, weren’t you? Do you know what we do to thieves?” Bear mask gets real close to his face, voice quiet. Mark shakes his head. He feels the strong urge to run. “We punish them.” He winds his arm up and swings, smashing his pipe against Mark’s leg. He crumples to the floor and lets out a blood curdling scream, clutching his leg in pain. “Mark!” Jisung steps in front of him, but Mark pulls on his arm to get him to stop. “You’re next, kid.” 

Jisung acts fast, hauling Mark up to his feet and reaching into his backpack and pulling out a smoke grenade, pulling the pin with his teeth and throwing it on the ground. Jisung helps him run out the store, not even bothering looking back. He’s surprised they even make it out, they were outnumbered thirteen to two. “It hurts.” He sobs, gasping when they slow down to a stop once they’re far away. He lets himself fall to the grass, landing on his back. “Jisung? Can you let me just….lie here for a while?” He groans, blinking out tears from the corner of his eyes. Jisung doubles over and puts his hands on his knees. “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.”

—————————————————————————————

“Yeesh, that’s horrible.” Jaemin winces. Mark nods, rubbing the back of his neck. “Safe to say we’re never entering Target again.” Jeno whistles as he starts to collect their empty plates. “Good call. We try to avoid them, but sometimes they let us trade booze for pizza.” Renjun sips from his glass of water. “Business is business out here.” Jeno smiles at Mark when he takes his plate, and Mark can’t hide the blush on his cheeks. “Thanks.” He whispers. “No problem.” Jeno’s smile is warm, sending a weird butterfly sensation through Mark’s chest. “So what do you guys do all day?” Jisung asks, turning to Chenle. 

“We do a lot of things! We play games, garden, train, and a bunch of other stuff. And if there’s nothing else to do, a nap is always the best answer.” He says excitedly. Mark hums. “I like the sound of that last one.” Jisung rolls his eyes and scoffs. “I’m convinced Mark’s part koala. I’ve never seen anyone sleep so much.” Mark punches him in the arm playfully, squeaking when Jisung yanks his hair in return. “You’re mean.” He pouts. Jisung laughs. “Nope, just honest. You always told me to be honest so now I’m listening to you!”

“Since when do you listen to me?”

“Forever!”

“Oh sure, as if I believe that!”

The two siblings continue to bicker with each other as everyone else cleans up, leaving them alone in the living room. They don’t do much for the rest of the day, Jisung playing a card game with Chenle and Jaemin while Mark chills on the couch. Dinner is about the same, Mark staying quiet as Jisung socializes a little bit with the others. Chenle yawns and Renjun says it’s bedtime, Donghyuck already running up the stairs to what he assumes is the bedroom. Jeno kindly helps him up the stairs, supporting him as he struggles to get up. “You’re too kind.” He winces once he reaches the top. Jeno shakes his head. “I like to think I’m just the right amount.”

Fuck. He’s cute. He scoffs and pretends to roll his eyes playfully. The bedroom is lit by some candles on bedside tables, also showing the effects of time. Mark notes how there’s only 3 beds. “Someone’s gonna have to sleep on the floor.” Renjun says, showing up in a pair of pajamas. He hands Jisung and Mark a pair as he goes into the closet for some pillows and blankets. “Where the hell did you guys get these?” Mark asks curiously. Jaemin laughs, flopping onto one of the beds. “You’d be surprised at what kind of shit you just find. We have lots of pajamas and clothes.” He nods, humming in thought. “I can sleep on the floor if you want.” Mark says quietly.

“But—“ Jeno starts to protest when Mark holds a hand up to stop him. “No buts. I insist, you guys have been incredibly nice to us since we got here, let me at least do this little thing. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor, so don’t worry.” Jisung takes his backpack off his shoulders and puts it up against the wall. “Don’t even try arguing with him, he’s a stubborn little bitch.” He adds loudly. Mark whacks him on the arm. “...Alright. You can use the other room to change if you’d like.” Mark nods, quietly stepping out of the room and slipping the clothes on. It’s comfortable, making him want to never change out of them. He walks back to the room and everyone’s curled up in their own beds whispering to each other. There’s even a little makeshift bed made next to where Jisung’s sleeping for him.

Jisung rubs his eyes and yawns, waving to Mark. He smiles and walks over, gently kissing his forehead like he did every night before they went to sleep. “G’night.” He mumbles, giving Mark a hug before flopping back down on his bed. He’s out like a light, Mark chuckling as he tucks him in. He situates himself on his bed, pulling his blanket to his chest. “Alright, goodnight everyone. Here’s to another day in the apocalypse and hoping we make it out alive.” Renjun says, blowing out the last candle that lit up the room. There’s a chorus of ‘goodnight!’s and ‘sleep well!’s as Mark closes his eyes, mumbling out a quiet “Night,” letting the peaceful bliss of sleep take him.

Mark sleeps peacefully, for the most part. He doesn’t toss and turn like he usually does, and it feels nice to have an actual pillow under his head. Unfortunately, he’s woken up when someone ends up stepping on his stomach. “Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” Chenle squawks apologetically. He groans, slapping his leg and curling in on himself. He’s soon back asleep, dead to the world. “He…fell back asleep. Wow, you weren’t kidding about the koala thing were you?” He snorts, crouching down to pull the blanket over Mark. “Yep.” Jisung chuckles, yawning and standing up.

He wakes up again when insistent hands shake him. “Mark. Mark wake up.” Jisung whispers, still shaking him harshly. “No. Go away.” He whines, swatting his hands away. “Please, it’s almost noon.” He tries to pull Mark up, but he’s dead weight in his arms. “Not my problem.” He grumbles, hiding under his blanket. Jisung finally manages to yank Mark to his feet, pulling him along downstairs. “He’s awake!” He announces, shoving him into the kitchen. He drags him over to a chair and sits him down, laughing when he whines. 

“Good morning Mark!” Jaemin chirps, sipping from a decorated mug. Mark grumbles something akin to a “wah” and rests his forehead against the table. Renjun walks over and puts a plate of eggs, bacon and sausage in front of him, gently tapping his head. “Eat.” He says before walking back to stand next to Jaemin. Mark lifts his head up and under Renjun’s powerful gaze, sits up properly so he can eat. “Would you like anything to drink?” Jaemin asks, rummaging through their now restocked fridge. “Uh, water is fine.” 

Jaemin tosses him a water bottle that almost hits him in the face. “Thank you.” He sighs, taking a long drink. “Did you sleep well, kiddo?” He asks Jisung as he munches on some bacon. Jisung nods, sipping on his own glass of freshly made apple juice. “It was nice to sleep on a bed for the first time in like, a year. I’m guessing you slept well, hm?” He asks teasingly, poking his cheek. “Fuck you.” He bites, pinching his ear. “But seriously, yeah. The best I’ve slept in weeks.” 

“We were waiting for you to wake up for so long. Renjun was about to not save you breakfast.” Jaemin laughs, sneakily snatching a piece of bacon from Jisung’s plate. “Well, glad you did. You’re a killer cook, jesus.” Mark hums, forking some eggs into his mouth. Renjun pridefully smiles. “Thank you.” Jaemin pouts. “I helped too!” Renjun playfully smacks him in the chest. “Sure you did, Nana.” Jaemin scowls and puffs out his cheeks, Renjun rolling his eyes and giving him a peck on the cheek.That seems to make him happy as he giggles and sips on his mug cheerfully. “Hey Mark, are you any good with gardening?” Renjun asks curiously.

Mark puts his fork down. “I think I am. Our mom had a little garden back at home and I always helped her with it. Why?” Renjun lifts himself so he’s sitting on the counter. “I need help with the garden outback, and no one else wants to help. So I thought I’d ask you.” Mark nods, standing up and putting his dish in the sink. “I’ll help.” Jisung smiles as he thinks about home. “Mom did always say you were born with a green thumb.” He blushes as Jaemin coos. “Aww, that’s adorable! Maybe you’re part fairy or something.” Mark huffs as he washes his plate, shaking his hands dry. “Fairies aren’t real, Jaemin.” Mark sits himself back down next to Jisung as Jaemin scrunches his nose up. “Zombies are real now, anything’s fair game.” Jisung gives him a look. “He’s got a fair point.” 

“I guess. Where’s Jeno and Chenle and Donghyuck?” Almost if on cue, the three walk into the kitchen, laughing loudly with each other. Mark makes the mistake of drinking some of his water because he immediately chokes when he sees Jeno. He runs a hand through his sweaty hair, and he’s wearing a black tank top that fully shows off his arms. Mark stops working for a second. Jisung sneers at him as his face turns red, and Mark wants nothing more than to smack him right now. “Renjun! Jaemin!” Donghyuck squeals, running up to the pair and giving them a hug. Renjun groans as he crushes them, gently pushing him away. “You need to take a shower.” He says, shoving his face away from him. Donghyuck’s stubborn and still manages to press a kiss to his neck, laughing when Renjun grumpily whines. “God, you’re stinky.”

“Hey, you’re awake, Sleeping Beauty.” Jeno says with a smile. Mark laughs awkwardly. “Haha, yeah. W-Where were you?” Jeno sits himself down across from him with a sigh. “We were out chopping some wood. We wanted to have a campfire tonight.” He says, resting his chin in his palm. “Oh. Fun.” His voice cracks, face turning redder and he wants to shoot himself in the foot. “Wait, you guys have working showers?” Jisung asks, switching the topic of conversation. Chenle nods. “Yup! The plumbing in here works so we use the showers often. Hygiene is important, ya know!”

Mark wipes his mouth with his arm. “I’m still baffled that you guys have managed to make yourselves such a nice home in the middle of….everything.” Jaemin nods from where he’s half hugging Renjun. “We really have a lot of free time on our hands, so we try to upgrade and stay on top when we can.” Renjun nods, taking Jaemin’s mug from his hands and putting it in the sink. He claps his hands twice to get everyone’s attention. “Alright! Hyuck, you’re first to the shower because jesus christ you smell! Then Jeno, Chenle, Jisung and Mark can take turns. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us, so let’s get started!”

Renjun wouldn’t let him go back to sleep while he waited for his turn so he helped clean up around the house, washing windows and organizing rooms. When it’s finally his turn to shower, he stands there for a few seconds just to let the warm water hit him. He and Jisung had found ways to stay clean, but never a proper shower. He gets all of the dirt and grime out and he feels refreshed when he steps out. His hair is untangled, slightly curling after he dries it. He changes into his clothes and steps outside, signalling for Jisung to take his turn.

“You don’t look like a rotting corpse anymore.” He says teasingly. Mark raises an eyebrow and hits him on the back. “Yeah? And you still do.” Jisung sticks his tongue out at him and laughs, shutting the bathroom door behind him. “Mark!” Renjun calls, walking up to him. “Hey, you practically look brand new! That’s good. Are you ready to see the garden?” Mark nods excitedly. Renjun holds his hand out and Mark hesitantly takes it, making him laugh. “I don’t bite, I promise.” Renjun chuckles, pulling Mark behind him. They go out through the front door and around the side, and Mark gasps when he sees it. It’s a lot larger than he expected, vegetables and flowers growing in neat little rows. “Woah. Mom would’ve loved this.” He says in awe, crouching down to inspect the plants. “Impressive, right? Jaemin is really better with this stuff than I am but he’s busy right now. I just need some help picking and replanting stuff, if you don’t mind.” They walk through the rows of plants, careful not to step on anything. Mark quickly picks up from Renjun what to do, rolling up his sleeves and digging into the dirt. 

“Hey little flower.” Mark coos at the flower he’s holding in his hand, ready to be planted into the ground. “You’re gonna grow big one day, okay?” He gently places it in the small hole he dug and pushes the dirt over it, patting it down nicely. “I think I’m gonna call you Daisy. You’re not a daisy, but it suits you I think.” Mark sits back on his heels and smiles fondly. Their mom was named Daisy. Mark has many happy memories of gardening with her when they were younger, it pains a little to think about them. He has more important matters to attend to rather than reminiscing on the past, so he wipes the dirt off his hands and wipes his brow. “...Are you talking to the plants?” Jaemin suddenly asks.

He yelps, not even noticing when he showed up behind him. “No!” Mark yells, cheeks turning red. Jaemin gives him an accusatory nod. “Sure.” He huffs and stands up grumpily. “When did you even get here?” Jaemin leans forward and wipes some dirt from his cheek. “Renjun went back inside, so I’m here now. Welcome to my home turf! I can see you’ve...already made yourself acquainted with the garden.” He eyes the flowers wearily, before looking back up at Mark. “Shut up.” He ignores Jaemin and moves on to the next space, digging up a little hole for the next flower. “Awww come on! You’re so cold!” Jaemin whines, draping himself over his back. “I think it’s cute you talk to plants!” Mark snorts, not paying attention to him. “If it makes you feel better, I sing to them sometimes!”

“Really?” Mark scoffs, planting some blue flowers he can never remember the name of. Jaemin pouts, pulling himself up from his back. “You’re in no place to make fun of me for singing to plants.” He stands up and continues to work, Jaemin trailing behind him. “Do you ever smile? Or laugh? I don’t think I’ve seen you do either.” He asks, tilting his head to the side. Mark sighs. “Can’t you go bother someone else?” He says sternly. Jaemin shakes his head. “I’m curious! You’re really quiet so I don’t know anything about you.” Mark spares him a glance over his shoulder. “Good. I’d like to keep it that way.” 

Jaemin groans. “You can’t keep acting like a mysterious stranger forever! You’re stuck here until that leg of yours is completely better and I’m gonna win your friendship over with my charms!” He boasts, dramatically posing on a wooden box. “And if I don’t, Jeno will.” He gives Mark a wink before walking to the opposite side of the garden, leaving him flustered in the middle of the flower patch. “What the hell does that mean?” Jaemin shrugs, crouching down and turning his attention to the vegetables. “You’ll find out in due time.” He says flatly. Mark really wants to smack him with the little shovel he’s holding, but he decides against it. Technically, Jeno’s already won him over, but he’d never admit it. “You’re annoying.” He says, as if he’s deciding that.

Jaemin lets out a laugh. “You wouldn’t survive being alone with Hyuck, then.” Mark hums, picking up some weeds as he moves along. “Good thing I don’t plan on it.” He works quietly for the rest of the time, carefully planting every flower as if it was the most delicate thing in the world. For all he knows, they are. He even stops to name some, naming a little yellow lilly after Jisung. He goes back and waters them, taking a step back and admiring the colorful rows of flowers. “I think I finished.” He says to Jaemin, stepping away from the garden. “Wow, already?” Jaemin says in disbelief, looking back at him. “Can you help me with these vegetables? Jeno was hoping to cook with them tomorrow.” Mark nods and Jaemin hands him a wicker basket, crouching down and tugging on a carrot. 

The sun beats down on them, making it hot fast. Mark grunts and takes his jacket off, tying it around his waist and pushing his sweaty hair out of his face. “Christ. I’m gonna have to take another shower at this point.” He grumbles, standing up and stretching his back. Jaemin wipes his hands off, tucking his basket under his arm. “Mhm. We’re all done for today, so let’s go inside.” He follows Jaemin inside, sighing when he feels a cool breeze hit his face. “Wipe your feet, you heathens!” Renjun yells from upstairs. Jaemin rolls his eyes and wipes his boots on the little doormat near the front door. Mark does the same and awkwardly trails after him into the kitchen. Jeno’s already there, working on something for them to eat later. “Oh, hey! You guys are back!” He says excitedly, taking the basket from Jaemin’s hands. 

Mark feels rather out of place as the two chatter amongst themselves. He puts his basket on the counter and turns to leave, but Jeno stops him. “Hey. How are you doing?” He asks him quietly. Mark shrugs. “I’m alright.” He whispers. Everytime Jeno smiles at him, he feels himself melt inside. Be quiet, heart. It’s too early to catch feelings, He scolds himself mentally. “That’s good. How’s your leg doing?” Mark blinks for a moment, almost not even registering the question. “Oh, it’s doing better. Whatever you did really helped.” Jeno giggles, eyes crinkling up. “Good to hear! Ah, wait a minute.” He leans forward and cups Mark’s cheek suddenly, brushing something off. “You had dirt on your face.” He murmurs, hand never moving away. ‘Oh. Thank you.” They don’t move for a while, staring at each other unmoving. “Have you… seen Jisung? Where is he?” He practically whimpers, voice failing him. “He’s in the living room with Chenle last I saw.” Mark nods. “Okay. I’m gonna go talk to him now.” Jeno drops his hand and grins, a slight blush on his cheeks.

Mark’s face is bright red, he can feel it. He waves awkwardly and ducks out of the kitchen, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He walks into the living room and sees Jisung and Chenle aggressively playing a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. “Yah! Jisung!” He tackles him to the floor in a tight hug, ruffling his hair playfully. Jisung yelps and fights against him, punching and kicking his arms. “Hey! Get off of me!” He yells, slapping Mark in the face. He laughs, letting him go. “Hi.” He says. Jisung glares at him and begrudgingly replies, “Hi.” Chenle blinks at the two of them. “Hi Mark? Where were you?” He asks uncertainly. “The garden.” He replies flatly. Chenle hums in acknowledgement. [“Fun.” ](https://youtu.be/zsRyyLtcXho)Mark nods, picking up one of the little balls from the game and flinging it at Jisung’s head. Jisung gasps and does the same. “You kiddos having fun?” He asks. Jisung rolls his eyes. “You sound like a 40 year old father.’

Mark crosses his arms with a huff. “Respect your elders!” He jokes, tightly hugging him. Jisung wails in embarrassment, struggling to push him off. “Alright alright! I’ll let you two be for now.” He stands up and ruffles Jisung’s hair, sticking his tongue out as he leaves the room. He doesn’t know what else to do for the rest of the afternoon. He doesn’t want to go and talk to anyone, and he already said he was gonna leave Jisung and Chenle, so he doesn’t know where to go. He walks up to the bedroom where his backpack is, digging through its contents and pulling out a leather bound journal and pen. He slips outside and goes back by the garden, sitting himself next to the flowers and opening it up. 

He’s kept this journal for quite some time now, using it to keep his thoughts and order and just something to keep himself sane. He writes, not really planning what, just letting the words flow from his pen. He writes about the entire crazy past week, from being on the run to coming here to the house. He doesn’t want to call it home, it doesn’t feel like it at all. He really feels like he’s intruding and just causing more trouble. He knows Jisung likes it, he’s made quick friends with Chenle. Jeno’s friendly, teetering close to stealing his heart. He doesn’t know much about Renjun, Donghyuck or Jaemin, but he still finds them nice. He goes on for pages, only pausing when his hand cramps up.

He’s so focused that he doesn’t even notice Jeno yell “I found him!” as he runs up to his side. He stands there for a few seconds, watching Mark’s pen move across the page. “Hey, Mark.” He says quietly, getting his attention. Mark yelps and shuts the book quickly, hiding it under his arm. “Hi. W-What’re you doing here?” He stutters out, his cheeks turning a soft pink. “I was looking for you. We didn’t know where you were so I thought to check here. Hyuck made lunch.” Mark scratches his head awkwardly. “I’m not that hungry right now.”

Jeno pouts, eyes shimmering at Mark. “But you were working out here all afternoon! Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Mark nods insistently. Almost if on cue, his stomach grumbles. Jeno chuckles and pulls him up, dragging him back inside the house. He whines, digging his heels into the dirt in the hopes of causing friction. That only makes Jeno tighten his grip, almost knocking him over with how strong he’s pulling. Jeno ushers him back inside and into the kitchen, where everyone’s seated getting ready to eat.

Mark eats his lunch silently, not really adding to the conversation. Jeno tries to get him to talk more, but he never responds with anything more than a few words. Jeno’s found a new sense of determination in trying to get him to open up, a challenge he plans on seeing through until the end. He even asks Jisung about Mark after they all eat, watching as he disappears upstairs. “I think he’s just scared of getting close to anyone,” Jisung tells him, “like he feels like he’s burdening people and he’s causing more problems just by being here. He used to be really social and loved making friends before, ya know, but things changed. I do appreciate you trying though, it makes me sad to watch him be all quiet and stuff.” Jeno nods and thanks Jisung for his help, unsure of what to do next.

His plan starts at dinner. Well, he doesn’t really have a plan, he just hopes to get to talk to Mark more. They build a campfire outside and all huddle around it, sitting on logs pressed closely together. Jisung drags a half-awake Mark out of the house, having just woken up from a nap, and sits down on the one in the middle. Mark, of course, sits right next to him, and Jeno takes the opportunity to sit directly beside Mark. Donghyuck insists on telling a spooky campfire story as they pass out sticks to cook their food on, but Renjun groans and tells him he can later. 

“So Mark, tell me about yourself.” He says softly, sticking a hot dog to the end of the stick he’s holding and holds it over the fire. Mark blinks in surprise at his question. “Me? I’m really not that interesting…” Jisung buts himself in, rolling his eyes at his brother’s self-deprecation. “That’s bullshit. You’re one of the most interesting people I know!” Mark huffs, flicking him on the arm. “Jisung, everyone we know is dead. It’s not saying much.” Jisung scowls and tugs on his ear. “My point still stands!” Jeno laughs as Mark turns back to him, an embarrassed blush on his cheeks. “I uh...I used to be in choir? I was in a lot of my school’s musicals, I got lead roles sometimes. I’m really flexible, I guess that’s interesting. I’m also a Leo, if that’s anything.” His voice trails off as he speaks, almost as if he’s scared he’s talking too loud. “Choir huh? So you’re a singer?” He asks encouragingly. Mark shrugs, blowing on his smoking hot dog. “I guess. I haven’t sung in a while. I’m probably rusty.” 

“Can you sing for us? Not right now if you don’t want to, but maybe one day?” Jeno pleads, stars dancing in his eyes. Mark flushes red. “I….We’ll have to see. I can’t promise anything.” Jeno pouts, shoulders slumping forward sadly. “Can you pinky promise?” He holds out his pinky expectantly, smiling when Mark rolls his eyes and links them together. “Alright, I’ll promise you.” He says. Jeno looks pleased, practically grinning from ear to ear. Mark can’t help but smile in return, shyly looking away. 

Why was his heart beating so fast? He feels overly warm, and he can’t help but think it’s not from the fire. He decides to blame the fire for now.

Their food cooks and Mark falls quiet again, silently eating his food. Mark hadn’t eaten at a campfire in years, the last instance being a backyard camping trip with his family. He remembers his dad yelling at Jisung for burning all of their marshmallows and wasting them. He smiles fondly at the memory, eyes focused on somewhere far away. “Jisung! Mark! You ever made smores before?” Donghyuck asks loudly, snapping him out of his thoughts. He nods, Jisung letting out a little excited gasp. “Yes! God, when was the last time we had them?” He grabs Mark’s hand and squeezes it, giggling quietly.

“Years, kiddo. It’s been a while.” Mark says with a smile, happy to see Jisung so excited. They’re given marshmallows and Mark can’t help but feel like he’s 14 again. “Jisung, don’t waste the marshmallows again.” He warns as he watches him stick it right into the fire. Jisung rolls his eyes and sighs. “I won’t, I promise.” He breaks his promise when Mark watches it melt off his stick and plop into the fire. He stifles a laugh as he watches Jisung turn to Chenle and ask for another one. His is perfectly toasted, a feeling of warmth and familiarity washing over him as he puts his smore together. 

“Jisung. What the fuck is wrong with you?” He asks as Jisung blows on his marshmallow that now looks like a piece of coal. “I like mine toasted.” He says innocently, taking the graham crackers from the box in front of him. “That is not toasted. That is incinerated.” Jisung rolls his eyes and takes a bite, never breaking eye contact with him. It scares Mark a little. But still, he’s having...fun. He feels carefree and relaxed, which is nice for a change. He giggles as Jeno tries his hardest to convince Jaemin not to eat an entire smore whole, and then watches in horror as Jaemin proceeds to shove the entire thing in his mouth and swallow it. 

“You’re so stupid.” Renjun huffs as he pats Jaemin on the back when he chokes. “Tell me something I don’t know.” He says with a sigh. Renjun finally lets Donghyuck tell his story and he grins mischievously, the embers ominously lighting up his face. He tells a story about a haunted house, and a group of teenagers exploring it. He doesn’t like how the house sounds very similar to the one behind them, and how the descriptions of the kids sound a lot like them.

They’re all picked off one by one, taken by the angry spirits living in the house that want revenge. “And that leaves the sun-kissed boy, standing in the middle of the open dining room. Legend has it he’s still there, in the house, madly screaming for his friends to come back, with no one to answer.” He finishes the story, everything silent except for the crackle of the fire. “Woah. Jesus.” Mark whispers. 

“Boo.”

He screams, practically jumping into Jeno’s arms. He was so focused on the story that he hadn’t noticed Jaemin come up behind him. He laughs, playfully ruffling his hair. “Sorry! I never expected you to be so jumpy. I just went to get my camera.” Mark groans, face turning pink as he realizes he’s clutching onto Jeno. He slowly detaches himself and crosses his arms, looking away grumpily. “A camera?” Jisung asks curiously. Jaemin nods, sitting down right back next to Renjun and Donghyuck. “Yep! I like to take photos and keep them in a photo album, just to keep some memories.” He holds up a picture of everyone during Donghyuck’s story, eyes trained on him as he speaks. “Oh, that’s nice.” Jisung coos. “Hey! This is my first picture of Mark and Jisung!” He says happily, putting it into his photo album. 

“Good luck getting pics of Mark, he’s got this weird talent of avoiding a camera at all costs.” Jisung says with a snort, Mark lightly smacking him on the arm. “Well lucky for you, I’m good at cryptid spotting!” Renjun rolls his eyes. “I’m the one that does all of the cryptid spotting.” They start to bicker with each other, arguing over who’s better with cryptids. “Alright! I think that’s a sign we should head to bed.” Jeno stands up, wiping crumbs off his pants. “We should also put this fire out before someone decides to commit arson.” Jaemin glares at him grumpily. “I don’t like how that’s directed at me. Anyways! Bed time!”

Mark doesn’t realize how tired he is until he stands up, letting out a long yawn. He helps Jeno put out the fire, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Jeno chuckles and extends his hand towards him, Mark happily taking it. “Come on, let’s go inside.” Jeno takes him by the hand and leads him upstairs to the bedroom, Mark quickly changing and saying good night to Jisung before falling onto his bed. He can’t find it in himself to pull his blanket up so he feels grateful when he feels someone pull it up to his chest, tucking him in. He lets out a quiet hum, mumbling a soft ‘thank you’ that comes out more like a jumble of sounds. 

He hears a quiet chuckle and Renjun blows out the candles they use to light up the room. “Sleep tight, everyone.” He says quietly. Mark sighs, shoving his face into his pillow as everyone says good night. He thinks back on everything he did that day, from the garden to the campfire. Maybe, life wouldn’t be so bad.

  
  


Mark spends the next week relatively quiet, like he always is. It becomes a pattern of him hiding away either in the garden busying himself with the plants or just any spot he can find, later being interrupted by someone looking for him. He gets used to the sound of footsteps and either Jeno or Jisung telling him there’s food ready. It happens again when he’s in the garden, tending to the vegetables with Jaemin.

He likes the garden, it’s mostly quiet with the sound of the wind and the crunch of dirt under his feet. Mostly. Sometimes Jaemin will talk his ear off and he’ll pretend to listen for the most part. He’s tending to the flowers like he usually does, mumbling something about numbers and flowers under his breath as he works. He starts to get lost in his thoughts, the sound of Donghyuck running towards them and yelling snapping him back to reality. “Nana!” Donghyuck runs up to Jaemin and gives him a tight hug, almost knocking him over. “Jesus Hyuck, you’re gonna crush him.” Renjun says, taking his time to walk over. Jaemin smiles widely, pulling Renjun into the hug. “Hey! What are you two doing here?”

Renjun reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a little plastic wrapped sandwich, handing it to Jaemin. “We brought lunch.” He says, glancing up to look at where Mark’s keeping his distance. “Oh, really? Thank you!” Jaemin gets up and pecks Renjun on the cheek, doing the same to Donghyuck. “He hasn’t eaten anything, has he?” Renjun asks, nodding towards Mark. Jaemin shakes his head, plopping down and unwrapping his sandwich. “He skipped breakfast, remember?” He hums, making his way over the vegetables and carefully stepping around the flowers to where Mark is crouched. “Hey.” He says, gently nudging him with his foot. Mark looks up, putting down his trowel as Renjun sits down next to him. “Hi.” He says quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

“I haven’t seen you today. How are you?” He asks, looking over the many rows of flowers he had planted. Mark scratches his nose, humming softly. “I’m okay. And you?” Renjun smiles at him. “I’m good. We brought you lunch.” He says, handing Mark another neatly wrapped sandwich. He stares blankly at him. “For me? Why?” Renjun presses it into his hand, patting it gently. “Because you live here and we care about you. You also need to eat, you dumbass.” Mark doesn’t know why this surprises him so much. He almost felt like he didn’t deserve it.

“Oh. Thanks.” He says rather blankly, cursing himself for sounding so stupid. “No problem. Take care of yourself, yeah?” He pats Mark on the back and stands up, making his way back towards Donghyuck and Jaemin. Mark sighs and takes off the gloves Jaemin let him borrow and puts them down, sitting criss-cross applesauce and unwrapping his sandwich and taking a bite. He thinks. He realizes he’s been thinking a lot lately. It’s really all he does recently, keeping everything he could ever want to say in his head and only telling the flowers and other things he knows can’t repeat what he’s telling them.

He’s so focused that he doesn’t notice Jaemin sit down next to him, resting his chin on his shoulder. “Hello Mark.” He whispers. He startles, jumping up and yelping. “What are you doing here?” He groans, rubbing his face. “I came to say hi! You always seem so lonely over here.” Jaemin whines, rubbing his face into Mark’s back. Mark huffs, looking over his shoulder and flicking him on the forehead. “I like it that way, thank you very much.” 

“Are you sure? You always have that sad look on your face when you sit alone.” He pokes at Mark’s frown, Mark swatting his hand away. “I’m not sad. That’s just my thinking face.” He was absolutely lying through his teeth. He felt a pang of jealousy every time he saw everyone act so comfortable and close with each other. He knows he’s not exactly helping himself by distancing himself from everyone, keeping quiet and not talking to anyone, but he’d rather not unload all of his emotional problems onto Jaemin right now. “Hm. If you insist.” He wraps his arms around Mark’s waist, pulling him into a hug. “Talk to me.” He pouts.

“About what?” Mark sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Anything. Jisung, the flowers, anything at all.” He says, resting his cheek against his shoulder. Mark hums, thinking about what to say. “Do the flowers look alright?” He murmurs, staring at the white flowers in front of him. Jaemin nods, moving himself so he’s now sitting next to him. “You’ve done a good job with them. They’re growing well.” He whispers.

He gently picks one of the flowers, motioning for Mark to face him. He tucks some hair behind Mark’s ear and puts the flower there, smiling back at him. Mark flushes pink, his lips twitching up in a grin. “You said you used to garden with your mom. What was that like?” Jaemin asks, tilting his head curiously. “Well, ever since I was little, she wanted her own garden in our backyard, but we never really had the space. She convinced our dad to cut some trees down and she finally had the room, so she roped me into helping her. She had a little section dedicated only to flowers, kinda like this one. That was always her favorite. She always said they reminded her of our family, so she always took extensive care of them to make sure they grow properly. She also had a little vegetable patch, but I think she liked the flowers more.”

He tells Jaemin all the little stories he could think of, gushing about life before the apocalypse with his mom’s garden. “And then Jisung accidentally stepped on her daffodils! She was so angry he ended up being grounded for a week! God that was-” He gasps when he realizes the sun slowly making its way down the sky. “Crap, how long have I been talking? It’s gonna be night soon— I’m so sorry I—” He starts to panic, but Jaemin raises his hand to shush him. “Hey, don’t worry about it. It was nice to listen to you talk for once. How about we go inside? We don’t wanna be out here when it gets all dark.” Mark nods, following after Jaemin like usual. “Mark!” Jisung yells when he walks through the door, attacking him with a bear hug he wasn’t expecting. “Oh! Hey, kiddo. What’s up?” Jisung pouts, burying his face in his chest. “I missed you.”

Mark chuckles, patting the top of his head. “I was just outside, you could’ve come and said hi!” Jisung sighs, punching him in the arm. “You were busy!” He laughs, letting Jisung pull him by the arm to the living room. Jeno’s sitting there chatting with Chenle over a board of Monopoly. “Hi Mark!” Chenle says happily, waving at him enthusiastically. Jeno looks up and he freezes, a surprised look on his face. “Oh. Hello.” Mark nods in his direction, sitting down next to Jisung. “The...little flower is cute.” He says quietly, pointing towards his ear. Mark’s face turns pink, reaching up to touch the flower. “Oh, I forgot about that. You can blame Jaemin for it.” 

Mark catches Jeno staring, thinking about how pretty he looks right now. He gains the courage to walk over to him, plucking the flower from his own ear and putting it in Jeno’s hair. “You can have it, for now.” Mark smiles when he sees the blush on Jeno’s cheek, giggling quietly. “Thank you.” He says, eyes crinkling up when he smiles. Mark thinks that the flower is cuter on him, but he decides to keep quiet. He sits next to Jeno quietly, politely declining his invitation to join their game. He still watches him as he focuses intensely on the game, narrowing his eyes in thought. He grumpily pouts when Chenle ends up winning, crossing his arms and leaning up against the couch. 

Mark takes a deep breath. There are many thoughts running through his head right now, but the main one is that he finds Jeno very cute. His eyes naturally glance down toward his lips, and he has to force his eyes away so he doesn’t stare. He also forces down any feelings that start to bubble up, deciding it’s a problem for future Mark to face. Afterwards, life continues as normal, Jeno gives him the flower back and Mark flattens it in between the pages of his journal, pressing it down and finding some tape so he can stick it to a page. He continues writing his thoughts, keeping to himself and only really speaking when he’s spoken too. He doesn’t mind it much, but he does find the loneliness very sad.

One night, Mark finds himself awake and staring at the glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling. He hears the floor creak, catching Jisung out of the room from the corner of his eye. He quietly sits up and follows, noticing Jisung sitting on the front steps outside. There’s a fresh breeze in the air, blowing the hair from his face. Mark silently walks over and sits down, joining his brother as he stares up at the stars. “Hi.” Mark whispers, glancing over at him with a smile. Jisung turns his attention away from the sky and towards Mark. “Hey. What’re you doing up?” He replies softly.

“You woke me up. Couldn’t sleep?”

Jisung turns his attention back towards the stars, letting out a sigh. “Yeah. I came out here to get some fresh air. I thought it might help. Plus, the sky looks beautiful. You can see all of the stars shining brightly.” He murmurs, eyes sparkling in awe. Mark nods, eyes scanning the night sky. They’re in the middle of nowhere, so there’s no city pollution to block the stars. “You doin’ okay kiddo?” Mark asks, looking back at him. Jisung raises an eyebrow and nods, taking Mark’s hand. “I’m fine. And you? You’re not exactly the most open person here.”

Mark chuckles, squeezing Jisung’s hand in return. “I’m...okay. Yeah. I’m okay.” Jisung narrows his eyes suspiciously at him. “You don’t sound very sure.” Mark waves him off, quickly changing the subject. “I am. But are you sure about you? You just seem very...spacey right now.” Jisung rubs his eyes, holding back a yawn. “I’m scared.” 

“Really? Of what?” Mark asks curiously, tilting his head to the side. Jisung shrugs. “I don’t know, really. I think it’s because I’m so used to danger at every turn that now that we’re safe...I feel on edge. There’s something inside me that’s just waiting for everything to go horribly wrong.” Mark nods, listening as Jisung rambles on. “I know we’re fairly secluded so zombies aren’t a worry but...I don’t know. I still feel uneasy.” 

“Yeah, I feel ya kiddo. It’s weird, isn’t it? We’re finally somewhere safe, but we constantly feel unsafe.” Mark snorts, resting his chin on his hand. “Mhm. I guess there’s no rest for the Lees.” Jisung holds his fist out, smiling when Mark fist bumps him. “Got that right. You’ve been adjusting well though. You fit right in with everyone here.” Jisung frowns at him, pulling his knees to his chest. “What about you? You’re not exactly a social butterfly.” 

Mark sighs, feeling his shoulders slump forward. “I know. It’s alright, I’m fine with being mostly alone.” He’s lying, and he knows Jisung can tell. “Mark, come on. You’re like a sad puppy half of the time. I know you’re worried about...a lot of things but you gotta socialize! Especially in times like these, where sticking together is the most important thing we can do. I don’t know how much I can help you but...just try to talk a little more? I know you get along well with Jaemin and Jeno, maybe get to know the others better! I don’t know, I just...worry about you sometimes.”

Mark hums, unsure of what to say. “Jisung, I—“ he closes his mouth and thinks. “I’ll try, for you kiddo.” Jisung gives him a smile, gently patting him on the back. “Thank you. I just don’t want you to feel alone.” Jisung lets out a yawn and rubs his face sleepily. “Thanks Jisung. How about you head to bed? It’s late.” He seems to consider protesting but he sighs, slowly standing up and stretching his back. “Alrighty then. Are you gonna stay out here for a while?” Mark nods, focusing his gaze on the brightest star in the sky. “Yeah. I’ll go back up soon, I don’t plan on staying out for long.” 

Jisung crouches down and gently presses a kiss to Mark’s forehead, doing the same thing he does for him. “Goodnight.” Mark smiles, waving at him as he goes inside. “Night Sungie.” Jisung enters the house, leaving Mark alone with the moon and stars. He’s used to sitting alone, but at night it feels like a completely different atmosphere. He can hear the crickets chirping in the forest, singing to any animals that are awake. He hears an owl hooting in the trees, a soft breeze rustling the grass. He sighs, breathing in the fresh air. He feels at peace, closing his eyes and listening to the sounds around him. 

He hears the floorboards creak inside the house, followed by quiet footsteps coming closer to him. 

“Hi Jeno.” He murmurs, turning to him as he sits down. “Hey,” Jeno says with a smile, “How’d you know it was me?” Mark shrugs. “It was a hunch. I guess I was right.” Jeno laughs, making the butterflies in his stomach flutter. “Yeah, you were. What’re you doing out here?” Mark lets out a breath he didn’t notice he was holding, letting his shoulders relax. “Jisung was out here, so I joined him for a little while before he went back inside. I decided to stay for a bit, just...enjoying the air, ya know.” Jeno nods, leaning back on his palms. “Mhm, sounds nice. It’s really pretty at night, we can see shooting stars sometimes if we’re lucky.” Mark hums, staring at the thousands of glittering little dots in the sky. “Really? That’s nice. You guys have a lot out here, don’t you? No zombies to worry about and you don’t have to worry about running out of supplies any time soon.” 

“Yeah, we have it easy out here. It’s nice though, we struggled a lot when the infection first hit so I’m glad we finally get to sit back and relax.” He says wistfully, looking off into the distance. Mark snorts, resting his chin on his hand. “I haven’t gotten used to it just yet. Jisung and I could never let our guards down because there was danger at every turn, so it feels...weird relaxing. That probably sounds weird, doesn’t it?” Jeno shakes his head, pulling his knees up towards his chest. “Nah, I don’t think so. You’re somewhere you’re not used to, so it’s pretty normal for you to feel all weird and tense. At least I don’t think so.” Jeno gives him a warm smile, eyes sparkling like the many stars in the sky.

Mark sighs sadly, hiding a grin in his knees. “Thank you. I’ve been so nervous since getting here I think it’s been clouding my judgement.” He absentmindedly picks at the scabs on his knees, puffing out his cheeks. “Is that why you’ve been hiding away all this time? You’re really nice to talk to, you know.” Jeno whispers, making Mark blush. “Jeno I—“

He bites his tongue, unsure if he should spill all of his emotions to him. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Jeno takes his hand, holding it so he stops picking at himself and squeezing it gently. It’s a small gesture, but it makes Mark’s heart swell. “I’m...scared of getting hurt. And I don’t mean like, physically, I stopped fearing that a long time ago. It’s just….Jisung and I have met people out in the wasteland that we’ve gotten close to, opened up to and became best friends with and then...they all died, ya know? Now I’m scared that it’ll happen again. Jisung took a long time to recover from it too, and I don’t want him to lose any more people in his life than he already has. We don’t even know if our parents or older brother are alive. I just don’t want any more tears and broken hearts.”

He lets out a shaky breath, practically curling in on himself. Jeno rubs his shoulder, simply nodding along and listening to him talk. “Oh, Mark. I’m so sorry. I know...I can’t do much for you, but I can assure you that nothing like that will ever happen again. There’s 7 of us! We can always watch out for each other and have each other’s backs in case something bad happens. Hey, I’m gonna make a promise to you.” He sticks out his pinky, encouraging Mark to link them together. “I promise I’ll protect you and Jisung, and make sure you two feel safe no matter what.”

“Jeno, you really don’t have to do that—“ he starts to say, but Jeno cuts him off. “If it makes you feel safe and comfortable, I’ll do it. I just want to be happy, Mark.” He’s sure his heart is melting right now, making his face and ears feel all warm. He links their pinkies together, finally smiling at Jeno. “Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.”

“Thank you Jeno, that means a lot.”

The two are inches away from each other, faces so close he can feel Jeno’s breath on his face and see every little detail on Jeno’s face in the moonlight. If he leans a little bit forward, he’d be kissing him right then and there. He squints, staring at Jeno’s cheeks. “You have freckles. I never noticed that.” He whispers, almost scared to speak as if it would ruin the moment. Jeno’s face reminds him of the night sky, freckles splashed across his face like the stars are scattered across the sky. Jeno chuckles quietly, a smile spreading across his face. “Yeah. I do.”

Jeno reaches out and pokes Mark’s cheek, pointing to the little mole he has. “I never noticed your mole either. It’s cute.” Mark is sure his face is burning bright red at the moment, judging by how Jeno pulls back and laughs. He frowns, a little disappointed he didn’t get a kiss under the stars. “Oh. Right.” He turns away and scoffs lightly, making Jeno laugh. “What’s wrong?”

“I have a reputation to uphold. You’re embarrassing me.” 

“What reputation?” Jeno teases, giggling at Mark’s flustered face. “Hey! If you go around the wasteland and ask them about Mark Lee, I bet they’ll have some things to say!” Mark lightly punches him in the arm, huffily crossing his arms. “What kind of things? Like the fact you turn into a tomato when you get flustered?” He wants nothing more than to wipe the smug grin off of Jeno’s face, but he doesn’t exactly know how. Well, he does, but it could get awkward real fast. “I don’t like you anymore. I hate you.” Jeno gasps, scooting himself closer. “You liked me? Aww!” Jeno continues to tease him, bickering with Mark until he laughs so hard his stomach hurts. “Changed your mind, hm?” Mark gives Jeno a skeptical look.

‘Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.” 

The two finally stop giggling, letting the comforting silence of night fall over them. Mark closes his eyes, head tilting forward as he starts to nod off. His head comes to rest on Jeno’s shoulder, cuddling up to his side. “Mark?” He whispers, glancing down to the sleeping koala attached to his arm. “Oh. Cute.” He lets out a sigh, slipping his arms under Mark’s legs and lifting him up effortlessly. “It’s like holding a pile of grapes.” Jeno thinks to himself, chuckling as he enters the house. It’s silent except for the floorboards under his feet, and the soft snores escaping Mark’s mouth.

He makes it up the stairs quietly, careful not to do anything that might disturb him. He gently sets Mark down on his sleeping spot on the floor, pulling the blanket up to his chest. Mark stirs, groaning and latching onto Jeno’s hand. “Wait—Don’t go. Stay.” He grunts. Jeno sits down, rubbing his thumb on the back of Mark’s hand. “I’m right here, don’t worry.” Mark smiles in his sleep, curling up under his blanket. He sits beside Mark until he’s completely sure he’s fully asleep, slowly picking himself off the floor and tiptoeing to his bed.

He sighs as he flops onto the mattress, moving Chenle’s arm out of the way as he makes himself comfortable. Mark looks so peaceful, face free of any worry or stress he usually showed when he’s wide awake. He’s glad Mark opened up to him, hoping he’ll be able to keep that smile on his face. It might just take some time.

  
  


There’s an order of everyone waking that Jeno’s used to, and it comes as no surprise to him when he has to go wake up Mark. He’s always the last one out of bed, stubbornly hiding away to sleep as much as possible. Jeno thinks he’d make a good Aurora. He steps into the big bedroom, recognizing the lump on the floor as Mark, the top of his head poking out being the only sign of a human under the blankets. He laughs to himself, crouching down and gently shaking his shoulder. “Hey, rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.”

Mark whines, slapping his hand away. “Go away. Shut up.” Jeno laughs, flipping Mark over so he’s facing him. “No can do, bub. You gotta get up.” He gently rubs circles into his back, making him sigh happily. “Sleep well?” Jeno asks quietly. Mark nods, letting out a yawn. “Like a log.” Jeno moves his hand so it’s resting on Mark’s stomach, making him squeak. There’s a moment of silence between the two as they stare at each other, Jeno raising an eyebrow curiously. His fingers gently graze his skin, Mark giggling at the feeling before he slaps his hands away again.

“Jeno. I will rip off all of your limbs from your body and feed them to the zombies out there.”

“Unfortunately for you, you don’t scare me.”

He digs his fingers into Mark’s sides, making him burst into laughter. He tries his hardest to fight him off, but Jeno has the upper hand right now. “I definitely hate you now. I’m gonna decapitate you in your sleep.” Mark huffs, rolling his eyes as Jeno holds his arms out for a hug, crawling over and wrapping his arms around him. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Jeno teases, patting his back gently. “Hmph.” Mark holds back a yawn, burying his nose into Jeno’s shoulder.

“You better not be falling asleep again.”

“I’m not!”

Jeno sighs and quickly shifts Mark in his arms, moving so he’s carrying him bridal style. He stands up and runs down the stairs, careful not to hit Mark with a wall. “J-Jeno?!” He squawks, hiding his face in his hands. He hates how effortlessly Jeno picks him up, almost as if he weighed nothing to him. “You need food!” Jeno strides down the stairs and into the kitchen casually, placing the beet red Mark on a chair at the table. Renjun chokes on his drink, Donghyuck holding back a laugh. “Good morning, Mark.” 

“Morning.” He grumbles, glaring daggers at Jeno who just smiles innocently at him. “Sleep well?” Jaemin giggles, placing a hot plate of food in front of him. “For the most part, yeah.” He sighs, snatching up one of the forks Jisung hands him. “Before I was so rudely interrupted.” Jeno laughs and runs a hand through his hair, hand coming to rest on Mark’s shoulder. “Your sleeping schedule is a little fucked. And we’re gonna fix it.”

“I’m okay with waking up at 2 pm, thank you.” Mark huffs grumpily. “We’ll see about that.” Jeno warns, shooting a wink his way. Mark blushes and he looks away, grunting and resting his head on Jisung’s shoulder. “I will crush him like a handful of crackers, I swear to god.” He whispers. Jisung snorts, sipping from his mug. “Have you seen his arms? He could knock you out with a single punch.” Mark frowns. “You’re supposed to back me up here, have some faith in me or something.” Jisung pats his back and sighs. “Under normal circumstances, I would. But under these circumstances? I’d rather watch you get your ass handed to you.”

“Thanks. Means a lot.” Mark says sarcastically, flicking him on the forehead. Jisung yelps and does it back, harder this time. They’re ready to fling themselves into a full-blown war, but Renjun clears his throat and gestures towards the food, and Mark doesn’t want to get strangled today so he stops. Other than that, breakfast is peaceful. There’s the usual bickering between Renjun, Jaemin and Donghyuck, along with Chenle’s loud laughs and Jeno’s smile. Everything feels familiar, almost as if they’re all a family that’s known each other for years. He still feels like an outsider of sorts, but that’s alright with him, he always wanted to be Sodapop anyway. 

It’s a sight he gets used to, a comforting hand on his back before moving up and running through his hair, Jeno grinning at him as the sun shines on his face. Mark has to remind himself that he is not in fact dead yet, and Jeno’s not an angel guiding him to the afterlife. He wouldn’t mind it, though.

He doesn’t expect Jeno’s cute face to follow him in his dreams, but it’s a nice surprise when it does. It’s comforting, a face in the dark he can trust.

—————————————

Mark wakes up, but he’s not back at the house. The sun is shining directly in his eyes as it sets, casting a warm yellow glow on the walls of the apartment. Apartment? He’s definitely dreaming. His chest feels all warm and fuzzy, almost as if he’s familiar with this place. It’s home.

He looks down and he’s practically drowning in a big blue hoodie, one that’s way too big on him and goes over his hands. He’s curled up in a chair by a big window, one that has a view over the city below them.

Mark smiles, sinking deeper into the cushions and sighing. The hoodie smells familiar, but his foggy brain can’t exactly put a finger on it. He considers closing his eyes and falling back asleep, but he

lifts his head up when he hears footsteps. He sees Jeno walk into the kitchen, whistling a tune as he digs through the pots and pans in the cabinet. 

Oh.

Everything starts to click in his brain.

Mark can’t help but smile as he watches Jeno work, preparing dinner while singing quietly to himself. His voice is soothing, calming on Mark’s ears. He looks up and notices Mark staring at him, freezing and smiling shyly at him. He turns the heat down on the stove and shuffles over to where Mark is, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. “Hi. Did I wake you up?” Mark hums and shakes his head, pulling him closer. “Nope. I woke up a few minutes ago.” He’s practically straddling him, one leg thrown over his lap and moving his hand to caress his cheek. 

“Well that’s good. I was about to wake you up, you were asleep for hours. You sleep too much.” He pinches Mark’s cheek, gaining a whine from the older. “I sleep just enough! I like napping.” Mark protests, pinching Jeno’s nose in return. “But what am I supposed to do while you nap? I get lonely while you sleep.” He pouts, making his heart melt. He shifts so he’s fully straddling him, legs hooked around his waist. “Well, just sleep with me.”

There’s a pause between the two of them.

“Wait, that sounds wrong—“

Jeno laughs, burying his face in Mark’s shoulder. “You know what I mean! I could always use a cuddle buddy.” Jeno wraps his arms around Mark’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug. “I’ll consider it.” He leans down and presses a kiss to Mark’s lips, a little satisfied noise leaving his mouth. Mark lets Jeno push him down, kissing deeper into his mouth. He feels like he’s in Heaven, any possible worries of anything being washed away by the pretty boy kissing him.

He giggles against his lips, making Jeno pull away with a smile. “What?” He teases. Mark blushes, chasing after his lips. “Nothing.” He presses a gentle kiss to his forehead. “Cute.” He pulls himself off of Mark, gaining a whine from his as he latches onto his hand. “Come and help me make dinner!” He lets Jeno pull him up to his feet, guiding him to the kitchen. 

“That hoodie makes you look tiny.” Jeno comments. Mark puffs out his cheeks. “It’s only big because it’s yours and you insist on getting them oversized!” He rolls his sleeves up and washes his hands, jutting out his lip in a pout. “Oh, so you finally admit to stealing my clothes?” Jeno giggles, poking Mark’s pink cheeks. “I—“

He can’t think of a defense for himself, simply stuttering in confusion. Jeno wraps his arm around his shoulder and laughs, kissing the top of his head. “Got ya.” Mark splashes some water on him, making him recoil and squeak. “Hey!” He chases Jeno around the kitchen, hands covered in soap and intent on getting some petty revenge. He laughs as he picks Jeno up and slings him over his shoulder, a feeling of warmth washing over him.

This is home.

————————

Mark sits up suddenly, gasping in surprise. He tries to process the dream he just had. His string of thoughts just ends up sounding like “Jeno….kiss….lips...woah.” He wipes some of the drool off his face and touches his lips, still feeling a faint tingle on them. Maybe the dream was a sign? He never really considered romance after the apocalypse started, but he has been feeling...strange with Jeno recently.

Maybe Mark’s starting to catch feelings.

He feels his face heat up, cheeks turning a bright red as he tries to wave away the memory of Jeno kissing him. “Hey! Sleeping Beauty woke up from the eternal slumber!” He hears Donghyuck tease, lifting his head from where he’s face down on his bed. “Shut up.” Mark groans, flopping back down onto his back. He hears the bed creak from Donghyuck getting up, walking over to where he’s on the floor and laying down next to him. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here? I expected you to be downstairs already.” He asks, propping himself up with his elbow. Donghyuck shrugs, scrunching up his nose. “I slept in. Sleep well?” Mark hums, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah. Very.” He gets lost in his thoughts again, thinking about how nice it felt to be kissing Jeno, soft hands on his face and his undoubtedly precious smile.

“Hello? Earth to Mark?” Donghyuck waves his hand in front of Mark’s face, trying to gain his attention. Mark blinks, snapping out of his daydream and back to reality. “Huh? What?” Donghyuck laughs, snatching Mark’s pillow from under his head. “Your face is red. Thinking about anything in particular?” He teases, pinching his cheek. Mark groans, swatting his hand away. “Maybe.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Mark purses his lips, hesitating for a moment. “Hypothetically, if you have a dream about someone and you...kiss...does that mean anything?

“Uhhhh….maybe. I think it’s a sign you’re falling in love.”

Mark nods and hums. “Alright, good to know.” Donghyuck raises an eyebrow curiously. “I feel like I know who this is about.” Mark blushes, covering his face with his hands. ‘Shut up.” He groans, rolling away from him. Donghyuck giggles and climbs on Mark’s back, crushing him with his body weight. “Donghyuck!” He complains, trying to push him off.

“Markie has a crush! Markie has a crush!” Donghyuck sings teasingly, ruffling his hair. “Shut up!” He whines, clamping his hand over his mouth. They tussle until they hear Jisung walk in, eyeing them from the doorway. “What are you two doing?” Mark puts Donghyuck in a choke hold. “I’m about to commit a crime!” Donghyuck manages to smack his face and squirm away. “Jisung! Help me!”

Jisung laughs and runs over, flopping on top of them. He latches onto Mark’s back like a leech, pulling him into a tight hug. “I’m turning this into a cuddle pile and you can’t stop me!” Donghyuck laughs as he slides from Mark’s grip, turning around so he can hug the siblings properly. Mark groans, being crushed between the two. “I hate it here.”

“I know someone you definitely don’t hate—“

Mark squawks and shoves him off, kicking him with his foot. “I won’t hesitate, bitch!” Donghyuck retaliates by smacking him with a pillow, turning into a full blown pillow fight that Jisung finds himself in the middle of. “What the fuck is going on up here?” Jaemin asks from the doorway. Donghyuck runs up to him and hands him a pillow. “I’ve started a war.”

He starts to ask a question but he’s hit squarely in the face with a pillow from Jisung, giggling as he nearly falls over. “Oh. I see.” Jaemin charges right in, chasing after Jisung for throwing a pillow at his face. Soon enough Renjun, Jeno and Chenle get tired of all the ruckus and go upstairs, only to get roped up into their chaotic mess.

Mark swears he’s never felt more fear than seeing Jeno running at him full speed with a pillow. Maybe a bat would be more intimidating, but Mark knows nothing but terror as Jeno swings at him. Jeno manages to tackle him and they end up a mess of limbs on the floor, Mark laughing as Jeno lies on his stomach. “I hate you, did you know that?” He says, making Jeno laugh. “You say that a lot, but I don’t think I believe you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Mhm. Empty threats, Mark.”

He laughs, running a hand through Jeno’s hair. “You’ll never know for sure. It’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.” Jeno hums and sits up, leaning close towards Mark’s face. “We’ll see about that.” He winks at him and pulls himself off the floor, running off to cause more chaos, no doubt.

Jisung walks over and laughs, sitting on the floor next to him. “Are you okay?” Mark sighs and pats his cheeks, feeling the heat on his face. “I have been defeated. I have lost the war.” 

“So...Jeno huh?” Jisung teases. Mark groans and hides his face with his hands, pulling up his knees to his chest. “No.”

“I’m guessing we’ll have this conversation another time?” He laughs. Mark nods, too embarrassed to say anything. “You have fun with that, I’m gonna make sure Chenle doesn’t kill Renjun.” He hears a squawk from Renjun that’s quickly silenced, followed by a soft smacking noise and the tumbling of bodies hitting the floor. “Chenle no! I’m your brother!”

“Long live the king motherfucker!”

Mark sighs and pulls himself up, walking over to one of the beds and flopping down face first. He hugs his pillow close to his chest, chewing on his lip in thought. Jeno. He liked Jeno. But what if Jeno didn’t like him back? Or what if he did? That’s something he’ll never know for sure. 

  
  
  


Mark keeps dreaming about Jeno. They’re persistent, the thought of him never leaving his mind. It’s pleasant, dreaming about being held and waking up to his smiling face. Jisung points out how he’s not as grumpy in the mornings anymore, grinning whenever he walks down the stairs and into the kitchen. 

Unfortunately, the universe seems to have it out for Mark. He hasn’t had a nightmare in a long time, and never one that was this...real. He doesn’t remember much thankfully, just flashes of some of the worst parts.

——————

He remembers his lungs constricting as he gasps for air, running away from whatever appears to be chasing him. He trips and falls on his face, the dream shifting so he’s in an empty corridor with Jisung.

Jisung’s scared, he’s trembling and gripping Mark’s hand so hard his knuckles are white. “Where do we go? We’re cornered!” He whimpers, eyes glancing around nervously. “We...We’ll be okay. I promise.” Mark says, voice faltering as he hears screams in the distance. “You don’t sound very sure.” Jisung says. “I’m not.”

He takes Jisung and they start to run, not even sure where. Mark hears the screaming get louder, and he’s about to make it to the end when he hears the sound of gunfire behind him. “Mark? I can’t breathe.” Mark quickly whips around and gasps when he sees the holes in Jisung’s chest. “Jisung!” He screams, rushing to catch his brother.

“Jisung? Jisung please! You can’t go yet!” Mark screams, shaking as he holds onto him. He’s turning colder under his touch. Jisung gives him a pained smile, intertwining their fingers together. He watches in horror as the life slowly fades out of his eyes, leaving Mark with a cold, dead corpse. Mark sobs, clutching onto his lifeless body desperately. “You can’t die! You’re the only family I have left! Please! Wake up, I’ll get you somewhere safe, I promised!” 

He wails until his voice is hoarse, suddenly feeling himself being pried from Jisung. He fights and kicks with whoevers holding him back, screaming for his brother. He feels himself being yanked from the ground and he gets one last look of Jisung, the smile still on his face.

The dream shifts again, and he’s in a flower field. Everything is calm, the wind blowing the yellow flowers in the sun. It’s too calm. Mark braces himself for something to go wrong. 

“Mark, are you even listening?” He hears a familiar voice say. He turns to his left, and he’s greeted by his mom. She looks the same as he remembers, long black hair tied back in a ponytail, the same moon necklace around her neck as always. “Huh? What?” He says dumbly. She laughs, the same familiar laugh Mark loved hearing growing up. “You’re spacing out again. Something on your mind?” She asks warmly.

Mark smiles and shakes his head. “Nope. Besides, you know it’s empty in there.” She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you, you’re a smart kid!” Mark chuckles, shaking his head as he turns his gaze back towards the horizon. “I know, I’m sorry.” He notices dark clouds starting to roll in, casting a shadow on the yellow valley. He watches as the flowers turn black, shrivelling up and dying under their feet. “Mom? Are you seeing this?”

He turns back to look at her, and she’s a completely different person. Well, she’s still her, but now her skin is flaking off and she’s decaying like old rotten wood. Her eyes are bloodshot red, a large hole in her side exposing her skeleton. “You’re too late.” She lunges at him, aiming straight for his neck. He screams, and the scene changes once again.

He sees flashes of familiar faces, hears screams so loud they deafen him and feels nothing but pain when Jeno plunges a knife into his chest. He wants nothing more to be back in reality, where he knows Jisung is okay and Jeno will wake him up with his warm smile and Jaemin will ask him about the flowers and Renjun will glare at him when he wakes up late and Donghyuck will tease him and Chenle will laugh so loudly everyone just has to smile and laugh with him.

Mark gets his wish.

—————

“Mark! Wake up!”

Mark sits up, taking in deep, heaving breaths. His throat feels sore, cheeks wet with tears that he didn’t even notice. Jeno and Jisung are sitting right by his side, eyes full of concern. “Huh?” He murmurs. He’s completely out of it, a dazed look in his eyes. “Was it a nightmare? We woke up to you screaming in your sleep and we were really worried.” Jisung whispers. Mark notices everyone else is awake, looking about as lost as he feels. “Oh, I woke you guys up? I’m sorry.” Jeno shakes his head and takes Mark’s hands, holding them comfortingly. “Don’t apologize. Are you okay?” He asks, eyes sparkling as he looks at Mark. He reaches up and gently wipes the tears from his face.

“I….”

Mark doesn’t realize how much he’s shaking until he feels Jeno’s steady hand. He sniffles, and he feels his eyes brimming with tears. Jisung wordlessly pulls him into a hug, holding him so tight it almost hurts. “It’s okay, you’re safe now. We’re right here.” He murmurs, gently petting Mark’s hair. “It felt so real, Sungie. They haven’t been this bad in a while.” Jisung nods, hugging him a little tighter. He knows the drill, how to comfort and calm Mark whenever he has a nightmare. “Take deep breaths, you’re hyperventilating.” 

Mark slowly breathes in and out, letting his heart beat calm down. He sighs, resting his head against Jisung’s shoulder. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Jeno asks quietly, gently putting his hand on Mark’s back. He sniffles and shakes his head. “I’m too exhausted. I’d rather go back to sleep but...I’m scared.” Jeno nods and scoots closer, Mark sighing as he lets Jeno hug him. He leans into Jeno’s touch, finding comfort from the warmth that radiates from him.

Renjun walks into the room, a teacup in hand. Mark doesn’t remember if he even noticed him leave and go downstairs. “I uh, thought some tea might help. It’s chamomile, it’ll help you sleep.” He delicately hands it to Mark, watching as he takes a sip. “Thank you.” He whispers, giving Renjun a tired smile. He smiles back and nods, taking his place back in bed next to Donghyuck and Jaemin. He sits with his knees hugged to his chest, sipping the warm drink and letting his body calm down. His nose is runny and his head hurts, but he’s stopped shaking for now. He finishes his cup and sets it on a drawer, walking back over and curling up into a ball on the floor.

“Do you wanna go back to sleep now?” Jisung asks. Mark shakes his head. “I think I’m just gonna sit here until I get tired. I’ll fall asleep eventually.” He sighs, pulling his blanket over himself. Jeno frowns, looking up at Jisung who shrugs. “Actually, I have an idea.” He gets up and Mark hears loud whispers and the sound of stuff being shifted around the room before Jeno excitedly runs over like a puppy and urges him to stand up.

“What? What is it?” He yawns, clinging to Jeno’s arm. “A pillow fort!” They had set up some chairs and draped a blanket over top, a large amount of pillows and blankets put in the center for them to sleep on. “We can all cuddle together! Plus, it’s cozy.” Jeno excitedly takes Mark by the hand and drags him over, gesturing for him to make himself comfortable. Jisung quickly attaches himself to his back and cuddles him, hugging him like his life depends on it. “Hi Sungie.” Mark giggles, reaching over and patting his hair. Jeno lies down next to him, smiling as he curls up under the covers.

“Hey! Make room!” Jaemin shouts, flopping so he’s resting his head on Mark’s stomach. Everyone cuddles close together, making a tangle of limbs and pillows. “Feelin’ better?” Jeno whispers as everyone quiets down. Mark can already hear Jisung and Chenle snoring away. “Mhm. Thank you, this really helped.” Jeno smiles his perfect eye smile that Mark has come to love. “Good, I’m glad. Now try and get some rest, alright?” Mark nods, letting his eyes fall shut as he’s surrounded by the warmth of the people he trusts and loves.

He didn’t realize he was this clingy in his sleep, or that Jeno was too. He wakes up in the morning to his face buried into the crook of his neck, Jeno’s arms wrapped around his waist. He freezes, blood rushing to his face as he realizes the position he’s in. He would try and move if it weren’t for the fact Jeno nuzzles his nose into his hair and murmurs something softly, hand moving up Mark’s torso and resting on his waist. Mark hums, simply accepting his fate as he holds Jeno tighter.

When he opens his eyes again, everything is the same except now he’s holding Jeno even closer, face nestled into his chest. He yawns and rubs his eyes, a pout forming on his face. “Good morning.” Jeno says softly. Mark makes a sleepy noise and tilts his chin up, cheeks flushing when he realizes how close they are. “Morning.” He mumbles. Jeno puts a hand on his shoulder. “Is this okay? I can move if you’re uncomfortable.” He asks worriedly. “Oh yeah! Yeah this is fine. I...like this, actually.” He’s as red as the tomatoes in the garden as he whispers the last words, making Jeno giggle. “Cute.”

Mark hides his face in his hands, shaking his head in embarrassment. “It’s too early to be called cute.” Jeno smiles, running a hand through Mark’s hair. “I’d like to disagree.” Mark huffs, cheeks puffing out as he nuzzles himself into Jeno’s neck. “Just shut up and cuddle me.” Jeno laughs and he does, pressing his nose to the top of Mark’s head. “Your hair is soft.” He whispers quietly. Mark giggles at the feeling. “Thank you.” He sighs and smiles to himself, nestling himself in Jeno’s arm, content with the warmth surrounding him.

  
  
  


He ends up getting closer to Jeno as the days pass, both physically and emotionally. The nightmares don’t go away fully, so sometimes he’ll get up in the middle of the night and walk over to Jeno’s bed, who’ll wordlessly open his arms and invite him into his bed so he can sleep soundly with no nightmares to worry about. In the mornings Jeno will be the first person he looks for, either giving him a big hug or just plopping himself down in his lap and letting him play with his hair. Sometimes Jeno accompanies him in the garden, striking up a conversation about any topic that comes to mind. They could talk about anything for hours on end, giggling until the sun rises.

“Mark? Hello? Are you in there?” His attention is drawn back to reality when Jaemin waves his hand in front of his face, crouching down in front of him. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes.” Mark blinks, scrunching his nose as Jaemin takes the basket he’s been holding. “Oh. Sorry.” He mumbles, shaking his head and going back to picking the vegetables from the ground. Jaemin laughs, patting him on the back. “You’ve been spacing out a lot lately, what’s up? Tired? Something on your mind?” 

Mark pauses for a moment. “I...Maybe.” Jaemin raises an eyebrow at him. “Yeah? What?” His face goes pink. “It’s embarrassing.” Jaemin whines and rests his chin on the top of Mark’s head, wrapping him up in a hug. “Come on! It’s eating you up inside, maybe it’ll be best for you to talk about it! If you tell me I’ll tell you something embarrassing.” He sits down across from Mark, knees pressed together as they’re sitting criss-cross applesauce. “You go first.”

“I’ve been to jail for arson before.”

“What?” 

Jaemin just shrugs. “High school was a wild time. Anyways, your turn now.” Mark wants to press on with questions, but he assumes that’ll have to wait for another time. He puffs out his cheeks and sighs, ears turning red. “I just….hm.” He squeaks and hides his face in his hands, unsure how to form words. “Is it about who I think it is?” Jaemin teases. Mark nods, groaning in embarrassment. “He makes me feel things! My heart beats fast and my stomach feels fluttery and god I want to kiss him so bad but I’m scared and—“ He groans and slaps his cheeks, trying to get the blush to go away. 

Jaemin quietly giggles, finding Mark’s emotional turmoil amusing. “Cute. When are you planning on confessing?” Mark’s eyes go wide as he sits up. “Never! I can’t do that!” Jaemin leans back and crosses his arms. “Sure you can! It’s how Renjun, Hyuck and I got together! We all just kinda confessed to each other! I mean, Jeno did lock us in a room together until we talked it out, but still!” Mark pouts, shaking his head stubbornly. “That’s different!”

“How?”

“It just is, okay! I think I’m gonna stick to pining from a distance.” Jaemin rolls his eyes at him, letting out a defeated sigh. “Mark. You don’t have to do it now, just consider it. Who knows, he might even return your feelings. What if he wants to kiss you too?”

“I highly doubt that.” Mark says sadly. Jaemin leans forward and pinches Mark’s cheeks, scrunching his nose up grumpily. “Don’t underestimate yourself! You’re a catch!” He whines, tugging at Jaemin’s hands. “Alright! I take it back!” 

Jaemin relents and laughs, pulling himself off the ground. “Good. But really, consider it. I can assure you nothing bad will happen.” He looks up at the sky, where dark clouds are starting to form. “It looks like it’s gonna rain. Are you gonna stay here?” He asks.

“I’ll probably stay here until it starts to rain.” 

Jaemin nods, giving him a pat on the back. “Alright, I’m gonna head inside. See ya in a bit!” Mark watches as he hops over the rows of plants, skipping back inside. He sighs, looking back at the flowers as if they could help him, but unfortunately for him, the flowers can’t talk back.

  
  


Jeno peaks through the curtains and gets a quick glance to the outside. “It’s raining pretty hard, isn’t it?” Chenle runs over and presses his face against the window. “Oh yeah! Isn’t Mark still outside?” Jaemin looks up from where he’s reading a book on the couch. “I don’t think he ever came back inside.” Jeno pulls his jacket over his shoulders. “I’ll go look for him and bring him back inside.” 

He steps outside and he’s immediately pelted by the cold rain. The wind blows up some leaves from the ground, making him shiver as goosebumps break out across his skin. He spots Mark at the edge of the garden, staring up at the sky. “Mark!” He runs up to his side, holding his jacket close to himself. “Hey! What’re you doing out here? Aren’t you cold?” 

Mark lets out a sigh, grinning as he lets the rain droplets slide down his face. He looks up at him and smiles, eyes sparkling as he looks Jeno in the face. “Nope.” He reaches for Jeno’s hand, intertwining their fingers together. “What’re you doing?” Jeno asks, moving some of the wet hair from Mark’s forehead. “Listening. I like to listen to the rain. It’s peaceful.” He giggles silently, shivering in the cold.

“I think I would enjoy it more if we weren’t standing in the middle of it. Let’s go inside, hm? I don’t want you catching a cold.” Jeno says softly, hands reaching up to cup Mark’s cheeks. He pouts and shakes his head. “I don’t wanna go inside yet. I like it out here.” Jeno can’t help but smile. “I know, but—“ He’s interrupted by Mark stepping back and giggling, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He spins around, sliding across the newly formed mud. “Hey boy, I’ve been thinking about us. Singing in the rain~” 

Jeno gasps when he hears Mark, albeit he’s not being very serious. “I haven’t heard that song in so long, oh my god.” Mark grins and continues to sing, running around the garden without a care in the world. He eventually manages to convince Jeno into a game of tag with him, shrieking as he chases him around. “You fool! You absolute buffoon! I used to take track!” Jeno yells as he catches up to him. He wraps his arms around Mark’s waist, picking him up and spinning him around. “Caught ya.” He says with a smirk.

He puts Mark back down and they’re so close, Mark swears he felt their lips brush against each other. “It appears so.” He can’t stop staring at Jeno’s lips, taking in deep breaths. Jeno moves his hands through Mark’s hair, and god he wants nothing more than to lean forward and kiss him until he’s out of breath. 

“Mark, my eyes are up here.”

“Huh? What?” He blinks, finally taking his eyes off of Jeno’s lips. He doesn’t realize he’s licking his lips until Jeno gently lifts his chin with his finger. He smiles, caressing his cheek with his thumb. “I think it’s time we get you inside. You’re shivering.” He looks at Jeno with the same shining eyes he’s grown used to, a pout on his lips. “But—“ Jeno puts a finger to his lips. “No buts. I don’t want you getting sick, bub.” Mark sighs, shoulders slouching forward. “Alright.” 

Mark grins, and he picks Jeno up, making him squeak in surprise. “Hey wait!” He shrieks, squirming in his grasp. Mark runs back to the house, holding onto Jeno as if his life depends on it. He fumbles with the doorknob and barely manages to turn it, swinging the door open with a yell. He puts Jeno down and laughs, feeling a rush of adrenaline as he spins around. “Hey! Took you two long enough!” Donghyuck says as he puts a kettle on the stove. “Yeah, someone didn’t want to come back inside yet.” Jeno teases, sliding his jacket off of his shoulders. 

“Hey! I was having fun!” Mark pouts, and the cold finally hits him. He holds his arms close to himself, teeth chattering as he walks to the living room. His hands won’t stop shaking, fingers all pruny from the rain waiter. “Jesus christ, Mark. Here, take this and change into something comfortable. Chenle’s starting a fire in the fireplace.” Renjun scolds, handing him a towel. He peels his soaked clothes off of himself and puts on his pajamas, which are much more comfortable than his jacket and jeans. He walks back downstairs quickly, having switched out the towel for a blanket but still feeling like he’s freezing. 

Jeno’s already sitting in front of the fireplace, warming his hands up by the hearth. Mark plops himself down next to him, pressing himself close to him. “Hi.” He says quietly. Jeno turns to him and grins, wrapping half of his blanket around Mark’s shoulder. “Hey.” He responds. Mark snuggles up to him, resting his head on Jeno’s shoulder. “I’m cold.” Jeno takes his hand and squeezes it, rubbing their palms together to warm them up. “I can tell.”

In a bold move Jeno gently kisses Mark’s knuckles, making him giggle and hide his face in embarrassment. He’s definitely warming up now. “You’re very giggly today.” Mark sighs, playing with Jeno’s fingers. “Am I? I hadn’t noticed.” Jeno boops his nose with the edge of his finger, a smile spreading across his face. “You are. It’s very cute.”

Mark can fully see every detail on Jeno’s face, every freckle and mole, how pretty his eyes shine by the fire, how contagious his smile is. “Not as cute as you.” He doesn’t realize he said it out loud until he sees Jeno’s cheeks turn pink, choking on nothing. “Are you flirting with me?” Mark smirks. 

“Maybe.” Now Jeno’s the one who’s blushing, holding his head in his hands. “Oh.” Mark laughs, pulling his hands away from his face. Every time their faces get close together Mark’s heart starts to beat super fast, making his palms sweat and face flush. Mark takes a deep breath. “Jeno, I—“

“Hey Mark!” 

Mark immediately forgets his train of thought when Jisung runs over and shoves himself in between the two. He quickly looks Jeno up and down. “And you.” Jisung turns back towards Mark and starts to talk his ear off, paying no attention to Jeno who pouts in return. Jaemin holds back a laugh from where he’s watching the three of them. “I think someone’s jealous that Jeno’s stealing all the attention.” He whispers to Renjun, who’s currently curled up in his side. “I would be too. They’re so annoying it’s a wonder they haven’t kissed yet.” Donghyuck strides over and cuddles up to Jaemin’s other side, a smirk on his face. “Should I tell them I made tea or should we just observe?” Jaemin and Renjun both nod in unison. “Observe.”

Even if Jeno’s cuddles got stolen away, he gets them back when Mark hops right into his bed after giving Jisung his kiss good night. Jeno smiles when he throws an arm over his waist and pulls himself closer to him. “G’night Jeno.” Mark whispers softly, lips ghosting over his neck. Jeno runs a hand through Mark’s hair and hums. “Night, Mark.” He waits until he’s sure Mark’s asleep, soft snores coming from his mouth and he’s even drooling a little bit. Jeno gently presses a kiss to his forehead, grinning when Mark lets out a satisfied sigh. He loves him, but he just doesn’t know it yet.

  
  
  


Mark groans when his eyes flutter open, burying his face into Jeno’s neck. He feels a hand rest on his face, caressing his cheek softly. “You’re up early.” Jeno whispers. Mark hums when he moves his hand to his hair, massaging his scalp lightly. “Am I? What time is it?” He yawns. Jeno looks around. “I dunno. But besides us, Renjun’s the only other person who’s awake right now. I heard him go downstairs.” Mark rubs his eyes with a groan. “Woah. That’s surprising.” Jeno giggles and sits himself up, Mark shifting so his head is resting in his lap. 

“Renjun asked me to go on a supply run today, it’s been a while. Four of us usually go, and I know you and Jisung haven’t come on one, so I thought I’d invite you guys to join us.” Mark thinks for a moment before nodding. “Sure, I’ll go. I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m sure Jisung will be up for it too.” He detangles himself from Jeno’s lap, stretching out his arms and back. “Now, let’s go downstairs, hm?”

Jisung agrees to go with them, excitedly chatting with Chenle, who’s also coming along. He rummages through his bag to make sure everything is there, extra weapons just in case and other small things he’s managed to drag around with him since the beginning. He hits something familiar near the bottom, pulling it out curiously. “Find something?” Jisung asks. Mark holds up his old cracked phone. “I forgot I had this. Do you think it still works? It’s probably dead, isn’t it?” 

He turns it on, his assumption proving itself when nothing happens. Jisung slings his own backpack over his shoulder, shrugging slightly. “Maybe if you find a charger we can look through it again.” Mark closes his bag and sighs, shoving his phone back inside and standing up. “Maybe. You ready?” He says, offering Jisung his hand. Jisung grins and takes it happily. “Yup! Let’s go!”

“Are you sure you guys are okay? You don’t need me to make you guys anything to eat or anything?” Renjun asks when they all meet up in the kitchen. They all look at each other. “Yep. We’re good.” Jeno responds, twirling the keys on his finger. Renjun wraps the sweater he’s wearing closer to himself, gripping his mug tightly in his hands. “Alright. You have the walkie-talkie if anything happens, I’m gonna go back upstairs and wait for Nana and Hyuck to wake up. Stay safe out there.” He gives them one final nod before heading back upstairs, stepping carefully so the wood doesn’t creak. 

The van they use is old and beat up, dents in the sides from bullet holes and withstanding the effects of a zombie apocalypse. Jeno tells him how when they first started out, he found it abandoned on the side of the road with Jaemin and they’ve been using it ever since. It’s spacious, big enough that all seven of them could fit in the back comfortably. The seats had been taken out, only leaving the driver’s and the passenger’s seat in the front. Mark and Jisung fight for shotgun, which Mark ends up winning as he slides next to Jeno. “You kiddos good back there?” He asks over his shoulder.

Chenle gives him a thumbs up, as opposed to Jisung’s annoyed scowl. “I promise I’ll let you have shotgun on the ride back.” Mark says with a laugh. Jisung sticks his pinky out. “Pinky promise?” He links their pinkies together and nods. “Pinky promise.” Mark sits back in his seat, kicking his feet up on the dashboard. “Where are we going exactly?” He turns and asks Jeno. 

“There’s an old grocery store that we’ve passed by a couple times that we haven’t checked out yet. If there’s nothing there, we can always go find another place nearby.” He says, never taking his eyes off the empty road ahead of them. Mark sighs and looks out the window, dead trees and run down buildings blurring together. For a moment he swears he sees a two headed bird outside. 

The seat is comfortable, comfortable enough that Mark feels himself doze off for a second. Jeno lightly slaps his arm. “Don’t. We’re almost there.” He warns, giving him a quick smile. Mark pouts and huffs, resting his cheek against the car window. Jeno laughs and offers him his hand, Mark begrudgingly takes it and squeezes it, finding comfort in how it feels like their hands were made to fit together.

He daydreams long enough that they arrive before he even knows it, pulling up in front of a grocery store that’s missing letters from the sign, clearly standing the test of time. “Alright, should be quick enough. If we all split up it shouldn’t take us long.” Jeno says as they all walk towards the entrance. The automatic sliding doors are long past the point of functioning, having to be pried open with a crowbar. Chenle kicks his foot through the glass, shoving the door aside nonchalantly. “Did I look cool?” He asks Jisung.

Jisung snorts, smacking him on the shoulder. “You looked like a dork.” Chenle lets out an offended gasp, putting his hand over his chest. “Rude!” The lights in the store are still barely functioning, occasionally flickering above their heads. Jisung quickly turns to Mark and squeezes his hand. “I have a bad feeling about this place.” He whispers. Mark pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll be in and out.” Jeno reads out the list he brought with him, assigning everyone what items to find. They all go off towards seperate directions, deciding to divide and conquer. 

There’s a meat section that Mark speeds past, all of it smelling disgusting and rotten. He grabs some of the canned food on the list, tucking them under his arm and wishing he brought one of those little green baskets to help him carry his stuff. He also manages to find a phone charger plugged into the wall, still unsure if it works. He decides to put it into his pockets just in case. 

He manages to run into Chenle, who’s inspecting a wall of hair dyes. “Does hair dye expire?” He asks, picking up one of the boxes. Mark walks over and shakes his head. “Uhhh, I don’t think it does.” Chenle quietly hums. “Sick. Do you want some too?” Mark looks over the colors, picking up a box of light pink. “Jisung always told me I’d look good with pink. I might just do a streak though, I don’t wanna dye my entire head.” Chenle snorts, taking it from Mark’s hands. He puts the boxes of hair dye into his backpack, zipping it shut and slinging it back over his back. He puts a finger to his lips and winks. “They weren’t on the list, but what Renjun doesn’t know he doesn’t have to know.” Mark laughs and waves him off, telling him to focus and go look for his things.

He runs into Jeno a few aisles over, and he feels his heart skip a beat. In a perfect world, this isn’t a zombie apocalypse and it’s just the two of them shopping for groceries after a long week, later returning home and cuddling until the sun sets. He shakes the image out of his head and walks over, grinning widely. “Hi.” Jeno looks down at him and smiles, putting down the things he’s holding on the shelf in front of him. “Hey. What’s up?” Mark shrugs. “Nothing much. I saw you over here and wanted to check up on you.” He swears Jeno’s cheeks turn pink for a moment, eyes forming crescents when he smiles.

“Oh. Thanks.

Mark shifts on his feet awkwardly. “Jeno, can I tell you something?” Jeno nods, eyes sparkling as he scans Mark’s face. “You can tell me anything.” He takes a deep breath, unsure of how to really formulate his thoughts. “I—“

He’s interrupted by a loud banging noise and a scream,

followed by the sickening noise of teeth ripping flesh and an all too familiar scream of pain.

“JISUNG!”

Mark runs as fast as he can towards where the scream is coming from, dropping everything he’s holding in a rush. He hears Jisung cry out, only quickening his speed. He finds him near the back of the store, desperately trying to wrestle a zombie off of him. Mark runs in and pulls Jisung away, standing as a shield between them. He doesn’t even look away as he reaches into his bag and pulls out a pistol, shooting the ghoul point blank in the face. He makes sure to shoot it twice, making sure it stays dead. 

“Jisung! Are you okay?” Mark drops to his knees to where Jisung’s curled up on the floor, clutching his arm in the hopes of stopping the bleeding. “I-It bit me….I’m scared, Mark.” He whimpers, tears streaming down his face. Mark feels numb, both emotionally and physically, hands trembling and a million different emotions racing through his head, he’s unsure how he feels right now. “Hey, don’t worry. You’re gonna be okay, I promise. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you. We’ve gotten out of worse, right?”

Technically, this is the worst thing that’s happened to them. Someone stealing your car doesn’t exactly match the seriousness of getting bit by a zombie and possibly being infected. He tries to hide the panic in his voice, trying his best to remain calm. Jeno and Chenle run over, wincing when the smell of fresh blood hits them. “Oh my god, what happened?” Chenle helps Jisung sit up, the younger holding back a wail of pain. He weakly points to the corpse a few feet away from them, and they seem to connect the dots.

“We need to get him back. Immediately.” Jeno says, reaching for the walkie-talkie in his back pocket. Mark scoops Jisung up in his arms and they all run back to the van, plans of getting supplies long forgotten. Mark sits in the back with Jisung, holding his jacket over the wound as a makeshift blanket in the meantime. He can hear Renjun’s voice over the walkie-talkie as Jeno explains the situation. “What about the supplies?” Chenle asks as he slips into the passenger seat. “Those will have to wait. I’ll go out early with Jaemin tomorrow.”

Jisung reaches out for Mark’s hand, squeezing it until his knuckles turn white. “I thought I was supposed to get shotgun on the ride back.” He laughs weakly. Mark’s face softens, reaching up to wipe some of the blood off his cheek. “We can’t exactly do that right now, Sungie.” Jisung smiles, taking a deep breath. “I know. Just trying to lighten the mood a little.” Mark sighs and holds him close, screwing his eyes shut in order not to cry. They drive so fast it takes them half of the time it took to get there, Jeno trying his hardest not to crash the van. 

When they get there Renjun, Donghyuck and Jaemin are already waiting for them outside. Renjun motions for Mark to follow him, leading him upstairs into a separate bedroom, currently transformed into a makeshift infirmary. He sets Jisung down on the bed, Renjun shoving past him and immediately getting to work. “Is he gonna be okay?” Mark asks worriedly. Renjun’s in the process of cleaning the bite, wincing at the chunk of skin that’s gone. “I don’t know. He hasn’t shown any sign of infection yet, but god knows how long it’ll take for any to show. Luckily, signs are very obvious and easy to spot, so we’ll know immediately if something’s wrong.”

Mark remembers hearing the signs of infection back when the outbreak started. Yellow eyes, black blood and decaying teeth. It’s why Jeno checked him when they first met. Right now Jisung’s eyes are still their usual sparkling brown, his teeth look okay and judging by the massive amount of red smeared across Mark’s clothes, his blood is okay for now.

The situation finally sets in for Mark. His brother might turn into a zombie. He feels dizzy, unsure if it’s from the strong smell of blood or the fact he’s breathing so rapidly. He feels a hand on his shoulder, relaxing a little when he realizes it’s Jeno who’s next to him. “Hey, you okay?” He whispers. Mark shakes his head. He feels like he’s going to be sick. “I’ll be right back.” He quickly goes downstairs and locks himself in the bathroom, sighing and pressing his back against the door. He washes the blood off his hands, staring back at his face in the mirror. He looks exhausted, definitely paler than normal.

He sits on the floor, curled up in a little ball in the corner. He hears a knock at the door. “Mark? Are you okay? You’ve been in there for a while.” He smiles a little when he recognizes Jeno’s voice, lifting his head from his knees. “Not really. I threw up like, five minutes ago.” He says. “...Can I come in? I’m worried about you.” Mark frowns and contemplates letting him in, finally scooting over and unlocking the door. Jeno carefully peeks in before stepping inside and closing the door behind him, joining Mark on the floor.

“Hi.” He says softly. Mark can’t bring himself to look him in the eyes. “Hey.” Jeno puts a hand on his back, helping him even his breathing. “You’re worried, I can tell. Talk to me, please.” Mark takes a shaky breath, holding his face in his hands. “I’m so scared, Jeno.” He fights back tears as he looks up, hugging his knees to his chest. 

“Jisung’s my little brother, ya know? I watched him grow up, I still remember watching him say his first word and take his first steps. We tackled the apocalypse together, he’s never left my side this entire time. He’s….really the only person I have left. If anything happened to him I’d—“ He cuts himself off, tears streaming down his face. “—I don’t know what I’d do with myself. He’s too young to die, Jeno. If he turns and we have to...put him down, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to do it.”

He chokes back a sob, quickly wiping his tears away. “Fuck. I’m sorry.” Jeno doesn’t say anything, just nodding and listening to what Mark says. “You don’t have to be. Your brother is in danger, of course you’re gonna be worried.” Mark sniffles and suddenly hugs him, burying his face in his chest. Jeno wraps his arms around him, holding him as tight as he can. He whispers words of reassurance into his ear, gently rubbing the back of his neck with his thumb. 

“Hey, look at me.” He says softly. Mark looks up, eyes shining with tears as Jeno holds his face. “I can’t promise you anything, but Jisung is a strong kid. I’m sure he’ll be okay, hell he’s probably been exposed so much he’s immune by now. We can only really sit and play the waiting game to see if he gets better. We’ll all be here, by Jisung’s side, by your side, until he gets better.” His voice is so gentle and reassuring, Mark feels inclined to believe everything he says. “Thank you. It...really means a lot.” He whispers, rubbing his face with his hand.

He bites back an ‘I love you’ as Jeno smiles warmly. “Of course.” Jeno mumbles, holding Mark’s hand. Mark swears he’s about to close the gap between their lips when Donghyuck pokes his head into the room. “Mark, Jisung’s asking for you.” He stands up so fast he face plants on the floor, scrambling up the stairs to see him again. He bursts into the makeshift infirmary, panting as he stands in the doorway. Jisung chuckles, patting the side of his bed. Mark sits down and smiles, the worry behind his eyes never leaving his face. “Hi.”

“Hey. How’re you feeling?” Mark whispers, brushing the bangs out of his face. “I can’t feel my right arm.” Jisung says light-heartedly. Mark snorts, holding his hand gently. “But other than that, I’m pretty okay. Renjun says I can’t leave until I get better, which sucks.” He complains, pouting slightly. “It’s for the best, kiddo. You’ll be out before you know it.” Mark reassures him. Jisung sighs, still grumpy about the fact he’s being cooped up. 

Renjun makes him go downstairs and eat, protesting the entire time. “It’s 4 PM, Mark. You haven’t eaten in the past 20 hours, you need to eat something.” Jaemin insists as he shoves a plate of food in front of him. 

“But—“

“No buts! Jisung isn’t going anywhere any time soon and you know that.” Jaemin says with a glare. A part of Mark fears him so he obliges and eats quickly. When he finishes he gets up immediately and runs upstairs to Jisung, snuggling close to him, much to Renjun’s complaint. The next week takes a toll on Mark. He’s not seen much by anyone besides Renjun or Jisung, and when Renjun makes him go outside he’s back to disappearing to random hiding spots. He finds comfort in tending to the flowers, especially the lilies. 

He stops paying attention to his own health for a while, skipping meals and losing sleep. It’s never on purpose, of course, he’s too caught up in his own worry to pay attention to them. The nightmares come back too, making him scared to even close his eyes for a few seconds. He finds himself in the garden once again, staring at the same patch of flowers. He hears the quiet crunching of dirt under boots, slowly getting louder and stopping at his side.

“Do you know what time it is?” He’s surprised when he hears Jaemin’s voice, looking down at him with worried eyes. Mark blinks at him, barely processing his words. “No.” Jaemin pulls him to his feet. “It’s 1 AM. How long have you been out here?” Mark’s eyes go wide, he doesn’t even remember the sun setting. “I…” He trails off, struggling to keep his eyes open. Jaemin gently ruffles his hair, putting his hand on his back and sighing. “Let’s get you to bed.” He says, leading Mark towards the house. He can’t even find it in himself to complain, he knows it's been a few days since he actually managed to sleep. Whenever he starts to tilt, Jaemin immediately steadies him with his hand. “Easy there, bub. We’re almost there.”

He squints when they get inside, the light feeling harsh against his eyes. “Mark, hey.” Jeno immediately runs up to him, reminding him of an excited puppy. He can’t help but smile at the thought. Jaemin leans over and whispers something into his ear, and Jeno nods in understanding, wrapping an arm around his waist and walking with him upstairs. He leans all of his weight against Jeno, smiling at the familiar warmth he radiates. “How is he?” Mark asks. His voice is so quiet, he’s not even sure he heard himself. “He’s doing better. Renjun was worried because it looked like his condition was starting to worsen, but it looks like he’s gonna make it out okay.” Jeno says with a smile. Mark grins, barely able to get himself up the stairs. “That’s good.”

They finally make it to the bedroom, where most of them are already asleep. Jeno’s nice enough to take his boots off for him, carefully untying them and setting them aside. “Get some rest, Mark. You need it.” Jeno whispers, gently cupping his cheeks. Mark nods, quietly yawning. He motions for Jeno to cuddle him, wrapping his arms around his torso. Jeno presses a kiss to his forehead and Mark immediately sits up, trying to scramble out of bed.

“Wait, Jisung— I forgot to—“ He starts, but Jeno pushes him down. “Don’t worry about it, he’s already asleep. You can always do it in the morning.” Jeno reassures him, running his fingers through his hair. Mark wants to protest, but he just sighs, melting into Jeno’s arms. His eyes fall shut, slowly falling asleep to the sound of Jeno’s heartbeat.

He’s saddened when he wakes up and the bed feels cold, Jeno no longer there. He sits up, his entire body feeling stiff and sore. “Oh good, you’re finally awake! We thought you’d never wake up.” Donghyuck says, sitting himself down next to him and patting his back. “How long was I asleep?” He yawns, patting his cheeks to wake himself up. “”About thirty hours I think?” 

Mark blinks. “Wow. That’s a new personal record. How’s Jisung doing?” He asks, slowly pulling himself off of bed. “You’ll be happy to hear he’s doing great, Renjun said it should only be about a day before he’s completely better.” It feels like a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders, letting out a sigh of relief as he runs a hand through his messy hair. “Can I go see him?” 

Donghyuck nods and Mark hops after him, already running three steps ahead of him. Renjun seems to be already waiting for him, chuckling when Mark runs up to him. “You’re finally awake, I see.” He says with a teasing smile. Mark puffs out his cheeks grumpily. “Yeah yeah, can I see him?” Renjun steps aside and Mark bounds inside, grinning widely when he sees Jisung sitting up and smiling. “Sungie!” He tackle hugs him, squeezing him gently.

“Hey,” Jisung giggles, letting Mark ruffle his hair. “You look like shit.” Mark lets out an offended gasp, gently whacking him on the head. “You’re one to talk! Are you feeling okay?” Jisung nods, burying himself in Mark’s arms. “Mhm. I feel much better than I did a week ago. The bite is almost entirely healed.” Mark excitedly grins. “I was worried about you.” 

Jisung squeezes Mark, resting his head on his shoulder. “So was I. I thought you went comatose or something.” They become a weird tangled mass of limbs on the bed, not paying attention to Renjun fluttering around the room mumbling under his breath.. “Unfortunately, I did not.” 

“What do you mean unfortunately not?”

Jisung playfully whacks his arm, the two bickering on and on and bursting out into laughter. It feels nice to sit around and goof with Jisung again, something they haven’t done in what feels like ages. “You’re a doofus.” Jisung snorts. Mark sticks his tongue out at him and ruffles his hair. “And you’re an idiot.” 

“I guess it runs in the family.” Renjun adds, butting into the conversation. “Hey!” They yell in unison, bursting out into laughter again. “Both of you, go eat something. Mark especially.” Renjun says, shooting the pair a glare from across the room. “Does this mean I can move out of here finally? This room stinks.” Jisung asks. Renjun rolls his eyes and sighs. “You’re practically all better now, so I don’t see the harm.”

“Yes!” Jisung excitedly grabs Mark’s hand and drags him downstairs, giggling as he runs around. “Slow down, kiddo!” Mark laughs, coming to a stop in the kitchen. “I’m going outside.” He says before running out the door. Judging by the screaming and laughing, Chenle is there too. “I see someone’s energetic.” A familiar voice laughs. Mark jumps in surprise when Jeno appears beside him. “Oh? Yeah, he is. I guess he had a lot of pent up energy he needed to let out. Makes sense though, he’s always been an active kid.” 

He watches out the window as Jisung runs after Chenle, proceeding to trip and eat shit as he tumbles to the ground. He holds back a laugh, smiling when he bounces right back up and keeps running. “It’s nice to see. How about you, Sleeping Beauty? Are you doing well?” Jeno asks, rummaging through the cupboards to cook something. Mark blushes a little, laughing nervously. “How many times are you gonna call me that?” Jeno shrugs, sparing him a glance over his shoulder. “Until you fix your sleep schedule.”

Mark pouts, puffing out his cheeks grumpily. “Mean.” Jeno lets out a hum in thought, turning his full attention to him with a grin. “Just honest.” Mark wants to protest, but he bites his tongue and doesn’t say anything else. “Did I miss anything important? Or was it just the normal chaos that happens around here?” He asks, fiddling with his fingers to keep himself occupied. “The normal chaos. Chenle broke something, but I don’t really remember what. A chair maybe?” Mark had noticed earlier the chairs had gone from seven to six, but he didn’t want to question it.

“Sounds about right.” Soon Jisung and Chenle run back inside and Jeno’s putting plates of food in front of their faces. “I know I’m not as intimidating as Renjun but...eat.” Mark holds back a laugh as he starts to eat, glancing up occasionally and smiling at him shyly before looking away. Soon everyone’s in the kitchen together, laughing and just having a good time as if it were a normal Tuesday. 

Chenle sits on Mark’s lap, and he rests his chin on his shoulder with a grin. “You’re cozy.” Chenle says. Mark groans when he leans back. “And you’re heavy.” 

The noise dies down for a bit, and Jisung looks over at him questioningly. “Hey, did you ever find out if your phone still works?” He asks. Mark gasps, the entire thing slipping from his memory. “No, I completely forgot about that. I should...go check now.” He has to wrangle Chenle off of himself before running upstairs, searching around for his phone and the charger he found. He finds them under a pile of clothes and snatches them up, bolting back down. 

“Is there even an outlet?” He yells as he makes his way back to the kitchen. Donghyuck pushes a dresser from the wall and points to a fucked up looking outlet, helping Mark plug it in. He unscrews it and has to mess around with the wires to get it to work again, but soon enough they hear the ding of the phone being plugged in and they’re greeted with the low battery symbol on the screen.

“Yes! It works!” Mark shouts, high fiving Donghyuck excitedly. “I guess we just wait for it to charge enough that we can use it.” They sigh, everyone crowding around waiting for Mark’s phone to work again. “Try it now?” Jisung says for the fifth time in the past minute. Mark huffs and turns it on, gasping when his home screen pops up. It’s an old picture of him standing at the beach with Jisung, taken by their older brother. “Finally!”

“Alright, what part of Mark’s personal life will we invade today?” Jaemin asks as he rests his chin on Mark’s head. Mark gently shoves him away, scrunching his face up. “None of it, hopefully.” It feels weird, scrolling through the phone he hasn’t used in two years. He has no new notifications, which doesn’t surprise him. His last text messages were him wishing his old friends and family luck and him saying goodbye. He skims over them quickly, he doesn’t want to start crying in front of everyone right now.

“Do you think Twitter is still up?” Chenle asks curiously. Donghyuck snorts, amused. “I doubt there’s any service here.” Mark checks anyway, and he’s not surprised when most of the tweets he sees are from two years ago. “I can check it, at least.” He is surprised, however, when he sees one from just five days ago. “Guys? You might wanna read this.”

Everyone crowds around Mark’s back, and looks over his shoulder, staring at the screen. The tweet just read:

@MNTL061499

If you can miraculously see this, you’ve survived long enough. Go to Florida, there’s a safe haven that’s focusing on rebuilding society. It’s your safest bet as a safe space. We’re trying to help as many people as we can, please come if you can.

Mark takes a look at the rest of the account, and the rest of the tweets are very similar. There’s even some pictures attached of a view of what appears to be a city, filled with life and people walking around. “This has to be fake, it’s too good to be true.” Renjun says, suspicion in his voice. Donghyuck shrugs. “There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we pack up everything and drive to Florida to find out if this is true?”

“Well, we’re not exactly doing anything out here, are we? We’re just...barely surviving and not really doing anything.” Jeno defends, stepping back from the circle. “We’re bound to run out of supplies eventually, we’re gonna end having to move when it happens so we can stay alive.” Jisung looks at Mark expectantly with wide eyes. “What does this mean?”

“It means we go to Florida.”

  
  


It takes a lot of debate and discussion, but after a week they decide they want to drive out to Florida for a chance at life. They find an old map of America stuffed in a closet upstairs and draw their starting and ending points. They’re somewhere in what they believe is Arizona, close to California because that’s where Mark and Jisung came from. It should take them a few days to make it across to Florida, so they stock up on food and as many other supplies they can. 

Jisung comes up to Mark one night before they leave, joining him outside by the garden. “Mark?” He glances over at him, raising an eyebrow curiously. “What is it, Sungie?” He shifts on his feet awkwardly, unsure if he should continue. “Do you think, by any chance, we’ll pass by our old neighborhood and we’ll find our family again? Maybe just stop by our house?” Mark smiles at him, pulling him into a hug. “We’ll just have to wait and see, kiddo. I hope we can.” 

Mark doesn’t expect leaving the garden behind to be one of the things that affected him most, but he’s grown so attached to all the flowers these past few weeks and months he doesn’t want to leave them here alone. “We can’t exactly pick them up and take them with us, Mark.” Jaemin says, patting Mark’s back gently. Mark sighs sadly. “I know, I wish we could.” Jaemin gives him a smile of reassurance. “I’m sure you can replant a new garden when we get there.” Mark waters them for the last time, sighing as he stands up on sore legs. “Ready?” Jaemin asks, holding his hand out for him. Mark accepts it, gently holding on and nodding. “Alright, let’s go.” Mark spares one final glance over his shoulder to the flower garden, following Jaemin back inside.

It’s extremely early when they first leave, the morning sky an array of pretty oranges and yellows, a few clouds scattered across the horizon. Jaemin had insisted they all take a picture in front of the house before they go, running to join everyone as it counted down. Jeno walks up to Mark’s side afterwards, some pillows and blankets under his arms. “You look tired.” He comments. Mark grunts. “It’s early. Too early.” Jeno smiles his cute eye smile and laughs. “At least you can sleep in the van. Come on.” 

Earlier they played rock paper scissors to decide who would drive for the first half of the day, and Jaemin ultimately ended up losing. Donghyuck and Renjun fight for shotgun, Renjun making it into the seat faster. They store up all supplies in a little space under the back and spread out all the blankets and pillows so it's comfortable for them to sit for long periods of time. 

“Everyone ready?” Jaemin shouts, looking behind him.

“Yeah!”

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” They drive off, leaving the place they managed to temporarily call home behind.

  
  


The first thing Mark does is crawl into Jeno’s lap. It’s comfy, and he likes how Jeno immediately wraps his arms around him. “Hi.” He whispers. Jeno grins down at him, gently running his fingers through his hair. “Hi.” Mark groans and buries his face in Jeno’s neck, hugging him tightly. “Sleepy. Wake me up in a few...hours.” He mumbles, letting his eyes fall shut. Jeno chuckles, shifting so the pair are more comfortable. “I’ll be here, don’t worry.” He says fondly. Mark’s soon out like a light, drifting off in Jeno’s arms.

Mark only wakes up when he hears Renjun yell “Zombie!” and they run over something in the road, jerking him awake. He grunts, sitting up and blearily blinking the sleep from his eyes. “Good morning.” He groans, rubbing his face into Jeno’s shoulder. “It’s noon.” He chuckles. Mark pouts, making himself comfortable in Jeno’s arms again. “Time is merely a concept.” Jeno giggles, cuddling Mark back. “Whatever you say.”

“Mark!” Jisung shouts, jumping onto his back. He yelps, glaring at him grumpily. “Hello.” He mumbles. Mark shifts so Jisung can rest his head on his chest, gently patting his back. “What is this cuddle pile you guys have going on?” Donghyuck asks when he looks over. Jeno shrugs as Chenle shoves himself under Mark’s arm. “It’s a cuddle pile.” Jaemin whines, looking at them through the rearview mirror. “You’re having a cuddle pile without me?” He protests with a pout. “You’re driving. You can’t exactly stop and join.” Renjun reminds him. Jaemin sighs. “When is it your turn to drive again?” 

“Not yet.” 

Jaemin groans and glares at them over his shoulder. “You guys owe me.” Donghyuck smiles and leans over the front seat, pecking Jaemin’s cheek lightly. Renjun taps his cheek expectantly, waiting for his own kiss. He rolls his eyes and obliges, grinning when he giggles happily. “We’ll make it up to you later, baby. You can cuddle us when we stop for the night.” Renjun promises, patting Jaemin’s thigh. “You better.”

The cuddle pile soon disbands after Jeno complains about being squished. Mark stares at the ceiling of the van as he listens to everyone’s conversations. Chenle and Jisung are arguing over something stupid and Jeno and Donghyuck are engaged in a heated round of that hand slap game everyone played in elementary school. He sighs and sits up, scooting himself near the front where Renjun and Jaemin are. “I feel like a vampire.” He groans, squinting at the sunlight. Renjun hums as he looks over at him. “We’re gonna stop soon so Jaemin and I can switch and everyone can stretch their legs. What’s everyone up to?”

Mark looks back at everyone, Chenle and Jisung now getting more heated over what he thinks is a discussion about Splatoon, and Jeno and Donghyuck have moved on to playing rock paper scissors to pass the time. “Chaos.” He responds. Renjun turns to Jaemin and says, “We should pull over before someone loses their head.” Jaemin nods and they pull off to the side of the road, in a patch of mostly dead grass.

“Alright! Everyone get out and stretch your legs! We’re taking a short break.” Jaemin announces as he slips out of the van. They all follow soon after, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. Mark groans when he stretches his legs, numb from not moving for the past few hours. “I forgot how much I hate road trips.” He complains to Jeno, who’s stretching his back with a yawn. “Anything in particular you hate or just road trips all together?”

“Well, the being in the car for hours on end, the boredom, the cramped space, the eventual car sickness, and the fact you’re only seeing trees and fields most of the time. I never thought I’d get sick of looking at trees.” He says, leaning up against the side of the van. Jeno nods, sitting down in the grass. “Understandable. Unfortunately, we still have a few days to go.” Mark sighs. “Hopefully it goes by quickly.”

They make eye contact and share a smile, looking away shyly. Mark bites his lip, holding back a squeak whenever Jeno looks at him, making his heart skip a beat and the butterflies in his stomach go feral. “Mark!” He’s distracted by Jisung running up towards them full speed, Chenle in tow. “Protect me!” He ducks behind Mark’s back, hiding himself from Chenle. “Your brother can’t save you now!”

Chenle taps Jisung on the shoulder, yelling “Tag!” before running away giggling. Jisung whines, stepping away from Mark. “You failed me.” He says to him. He taps Mark’s arm lightly, saying “You’re it!” and running as fast as he can away. “Well. I guess I’m it.” Mark says with a shrug. He pats Jeno on the head, ready to turn on his heels. “Tag, you’re it now.” They share a look before Mark bolts away, already knowing Jeno’s behind him running towards him.

They end up getting distracted playing tag for half an hour, running around after each other as if their lives depended on it. “Hey! Let’s get going, we don’t wanna end up driving for too long after the sun sets.” Renjun calls, already making his way back to where the van is parked at the end of the field. Jeno runs up and slings Mark over his shoulder, making him yelp in surprise. “Don’t drop me!” He yells, face turning pink. “I won’t, I promise.” Jeno says with a laugh.

He keeps his promise, gently setting him down back on the ground. “I hate you.” Mark scoffs. “I love you too.” Jeno responds with a smile. He gives Mark a wink, making his face burn red. Mark huffs and crosses his arms, biting back a smile that wants to spread across his face. 

Renjun takes control of the wheel, Donghyuck taking shotgun while Jaemin joins everyone else in the back. They start driving again, beginning the long process of making their way across the country again. 

Jaemin holds out his arms for Mark, wrapping him in a big hug. “Hey, cuddlebug.” He chirps. Mark raises an eyebrow curiously. “Cuddlebug?” Jaemin nods, giggling when Mark rests his chin on his shoulder. “Yes, you’re my cuddlebug.” Mark coos, squeaking when Jaemin presses a kiss to his cheek. “Affection. Gross.” He whines, tilting his head away. “How come it’s not gross when you ask Jeno to cuddle you?”

“Well…that’s different.” Mark mumbles shyly. Jaemin laughs, pressing his nose to his cheek teasingly. “Oh yeah? How so?” Mark blinks, already knowing how much he’s blushing right now. “Shut up.” He grumbles, hiding his face in Jaemin’s neck. Jaemin laughs, petting his head. “I’ll shut up when you tell him how you feel.” Mark lifts his head and glares at him, lightly punching him in the arm. “You know that's impossible.” Jaemin sighs, amused by Mark’s romantic crisis. “Guess I’m never shutting up then.”

Mark complains but he still cuddles Jaemin none the less, enjoying his company as the hours pass. He doesn’t realize he starts nodding off until Jaemin taps his shoulder, snapping his attention. “We’re thinking of stopping for the night in a few minutes. There’s a big neighborhood, so we’re bound to find a house we could camp out in.” He says quietly. Mark sits up and yawns, rubbing his eyes with his fist. The sun is starting to set outside, the sky a bright orange hue. He looks over and sees Jisung and Chenle fast asleep, a blanket thrown over them. “How long have we been on the road?” He asks tiredly. Donghyuck looks over and thinks for a moment. “About 12 hours? I don’t know, I’ve lost track of time.” 

They drive up to an old townhouse by the looks of it, windows boarded up and obvious signs of aging. “Wanna stay here for the night?” Renjun asks everyone. They all seem to agree it’s their best option, so they start filing out of the car and taking the stuff they need for the night into the house. Jeno wakes up Chenle and Jisung, helping them down from the back. Mark’s already inside with Renjun, flipping lightswitches to see if they work. “There’s light! We don’t have to rely on Jaemin’s matches now.” Renjun says excitedly as the lights to the hallway turn on. 

They settle down and do some more exploring, and they find out the house is much bigger than they thought it was, finding many empty bedrooms and even a balcony upstairs. “All the bedrooms are covered in dust, so how about we sleep in the living room instead? It’s big enough so we can all sleep there.” Donghyuck suggests, poking his head into where everyone is crowded around. “Better than sleeping with dust bunnies, I guess.” Jeno snorts. They set up their blankets and pillows into a comfortable sleeping space for the seven of them. Jisung immediately flops face first into his pillow, groaning tiredly. “I’m gonna go investigate if this house has any supplies we can take.” Jaemin says, glancing over at Donghyuck and Renjun. 

“We can come along—”

“Yeah, wait for us!”

Mark watches the three of them disappear downstairs, giggling amongst each other. “I don’t wanna know what they’re gonna be doing, I’m gonna...go outside.” He stands up and goes towards the balcony, breathing in the night air. A cool breeze hits his face, making him sigh as he sits down. He looks over at the yard and other houses, finding them unsurprisingly empty and dark. The moon slowly starts to rise in the night sky, casting a faint white glow over everything. “Mind if I join you?” Jeno says, stepping out onto the balcony. A smile slowly spreads across Mark’s face. “Go ahead.” 

Jeno happily sits down next to him, wordlessly linking their hands together, as if it’s a force of habit. “How are you doing? Tired?” He asks quietly. Mark nods, focusing his attention back on the horizon. “Definitely. You’re gonna have to end up carrying me to the van in the morning.” Jeno laughs, gently rubbing his thumb over his knuckle. “I don’t doubt that.”

“How about you? How have you been holding up?” Mark asks. Jeno shrugs, letting out a sigh. “I’m alive, I guess. I don’t think I ever really expected to, ya know, be finding a safe haven. Not while I was alive at least.” Mark nods along and listens as Jeno rambles on. “Jeno? Can I ask you something?” He whispers. Jeno looks over and nods, squeezing his hand gently. “I don’t think you ever told me how you met everyone. How did all of you come together?” He asks quietly. He’s curious, the thought never really crossing his mind until now.

“Oh! I don’t think we ever told you, no. I was with Jaemin when the outbreak started actually, we were in the middle of English class. We were seniors that year. The school didn’t handle it really well, everyone was screaming and running around trying to get home. I got a call from my parents and they said their last goodbyes because they were in the city where it hit the most. Jaemin and I are childhood friends, so of course we stuck together. We just kinda drove around, fighting off zombies with our bare fists and sleeping in my car in a parking lot. Jaemin got arrested, my car got stolen and we found the van, almost lost our lives a couple of times, ya know, the usual. We found Hyuck passed out and dehydrated in a wheat field, and then we found Renjun and Chenle in an abandoned Walmart. We drove for a while and we ended up at the house for many months. And then one day,” He boops Mark’s nose with his finger, “I found a little kitten rummaging through our kitchen. And now we’re here.”

Mark blushes, giggling and looking away. “Kitten?” Jeno nods enthusiastically. “Yes, kitten. You’re like a kitty.” Mark snorts, smiling as he shakes his head. “How so?”

“Well, you’re tiny—“

“You have an inch over me, Jeno. Just one. Not seven.”

“Shhh, it still counts. Besides, you’re cute and rowdy. Just like a little kitty.” Jeno argues, smiling at the pout on Mark’s face. “You’re wrong, very wrong.” Mark grumbles. “I think the others will agree with me.” Jeno says with a grin. “Well, don’t ask Jisung. He’ll say yes to anything against me.” 

“I’ll ask Jisung then.” He laughs. Mark whines and lightly punches him on the shoulder. “You’re the worst.” 

Jeno hums and wraps his arm around Mark’s shoulders. “You know, you say that a lot but I don’t think I believe you.” Mark rolls his eyes and grumbles something under his breath, still curling up close to Jeno nonetheless. Jeno just smiles and enjoys Mark’s company, even if he is grumpy and stubborn. They hear Chenle shout for them inside and take it as a signal to head back. Jaemin, Renjun and Donghyuck are back, looking as disheveled as Mark expected them to. “Find anything?” Jeno asks, closing the balcony door behind him. 

“Just an alarming amount of wine and beer and some dusty board games.” Donghyuck says, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it onto the couch. Jaemin flops down onto the floor, kicking his shoes off rather ungraciously. “Really would be a shame if we let it all go to waste.” Renjun snorts and rolls his eyes. “It’s probably all gross now, we shouldn’t drink any of it.” 

“There’s only one way to find out!” Chenle suggests. Renjun shoots him a glare. “No.” Chenle and Jaemin complain, tugging at Renjun’s sleeves. “Please? Can’t we have a little fun, just for the night?” Jaemin pouts. Renjun shakes his head, running a hand through his hair. “We have to drive tomorrow, remember? I don’t think any of you want to drive hungover and I don’t wanna drive again after today.” Chenle purses his lips, trying to think. “We can take a break day?”

Renjun sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You know what? Bring on the wine, god knows we need it.” Jaemin cheers as he runs downstairs to fetch it, almost tripping on his own feet. He comes back with a wine bottle and a case of beer in his hands, putting them on the table in front of them. 

“It’s our reward.” He says as he finds some clean glasses for them. Mark chuckles. “For what, exactly?” Jaemin pauses for a moment. “Being alive. We gotta celebrate the little things.” Mark sighs as Jaemin pours him a glass. “Fair.”

They quickly eat the food they packed earlier and gather round the small table in the center, deciding to play a game of Never Have I Ever to make things more fun. “God, I feel like a high schooler again.” Jeno says as he grabs one of the bottles. “This is like a high school party, except with a little more life or death risks outside.” Donghyuck says. “If you really think about it, this is just a bad field trip.” Jisung grunts. “Life is a bad field trip.”

“Alright! Let’s start off with: Never have I ever been in a zombie apocalypse.” Jaemin says. They all groan and take a drink. “This is somehow unfair already.” Jeno complains. It only manages to get more unfair when people start getting singled out and targeted. “Never have I ever had the last name Lee!” Chenle shouts. Jeno, Donghyuck, Mark and Jisung all protest, taking a sip from their drinks. “My turn, never have I ever been named Chenle.” Jisung retorts. Chenle sighs, finishing his glass. “That’s fair.”

It only escalates even further, everyone at the very least tipsy after a few more rounds. They also end up learning more about each other when it starts getting weirdly specific. 

“Never have I ever cried in the chorus room on Wednesday, October 24th at 11:05 AM!”

“Fuck you Jaemin!”

Mark laughs as he nestles himself into Jeno’s side, face dusted pink from the alcohol. “What even happened that day?” He asks. Jeno frowns, taking a long swig. “It was the day after the family dog died, I was a wreck.” Mark pouts, patting his arm gently. “Aw, I’m sorry.” Jeno shrugs. “It was 7 years ago, can’t really do much about it.” Mark hums, a frown forming on his face. “Still.” 

“Renjun, your turn!” Donghyuck shouts, snapping their attention away from each other. Renjun thinks, finger tracing the rim of his wine glass. “Never have I ever….cried over Hi High by Loona.” Donghyuck curses, knowing it’s aimed at him. Mark awkwardly sips, remembering that one night before finals where he sobbed to Hi High as he studied. Donghyuck leans over and high-fives him. “Knew you were a man of taste.” 

Mark’s definitely drunk now, mostly being targeted by Jisung and Jaemin and at this point not even bothering to play and just occasionally sipping from the bottle he’s holding. Jisung targets him specifically, and he just sighs and chugs most of his drink. Jeno’s side is extra comfy, providing him some extra warmth. He giggles whenever Jeno says a quip or joke, entertaining himself by playing with his fingers. “I think we should move on and play something else before one of us ends up throwing hands.” Donghyuck laughs. 

Jaemin lets out an excited gasp. “Let’s play two truths, one lie! I’ll go first—“

“Jaemin, no—“

“I don’t have a crush on Mark, I have two fingers at least, and I get a manicure on Fridays, which one’s the lie!” Donghyuck bursts into laughter, everyone else either staring at him in confusion or amusement. “Baby? I hate it when you open your mouth and say words.” Renjun deadpans. “Aha, I can’t get manicures, society doesn’t exist anymore!” He opens his mouth to say something else but Donghyuck clamps his hand over his mouth quickly to shut him up. “Alright, so no more wine for Jaemin, I think! How about we play some Uno?”

They dig up some Uno cards from a drawer around the house and decide to play, the group quickly delving into chaos as the game goes on. “Why are you crying?” Chenle asks Jisung with a cackle. Jisung sniffles and holds up his hand. “I have thirty-two cards, I hate all of you.” He slams his head against the table, Chenle patting his back reassuringly. “It’s your turn at least?” Jisung slaps a card on top of the pile, glaring daggers at Chenle. “Draw four, bitch.” Chenle gasps, grumbling as he picks up more cards. “Rude.”

“Never took you as the giggly drunk, Mark.” Renjun says as he puts some cards down. Mark’s vision slightly blurs. “Huh? What makes you say that?” He responds, resting his chin in his palm. “You’ve been hehehe-ing to yourself for the past half hour for no reason.” Renjun shrugs, resting his head on Donghyuck’s shoulder. Mark hiccups, bursting into a fit of giggles. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Jeno sighs and looks over at Mark, resting his head against his shoulder. “I’m bored, take my cards.” Mark protests when he hands his cards over, trying to hand them back. “No! I don’t want your horrible hand!” Jeno crawls into Mark’s lap with a grunt, shoving his face into his neck. “Deal with it.” Mark sighs and pats Jeno’s head, putting his cards down so he can envelop him in a hug. 

“Hi.” Jeno mumbles. Mark fondly smiles at him. “Hello.” Jeno makes himself comfortable in Mark’s lap, looking up at him with his wide, shiny eyes. “You’re very pretty.” Mark says quietly as he cups Jeno’s face. Jeno relishes in the compliment, smiling widely. Jeno suddenly leans up and presses a small kiss to Mark’s cheek, making him squeak in surprise. Jaemin makes a noise akin to a screech when he notices, Jeno hiding his face in embarrassment. Mark’s face immediately turns bright red, a smile spreading across his face. 

“Oh?” Mark teases. He gently kisses Jeno’s forehead and giggles, Jeno squealing and turning away. Mark feels happy, cuddling with Jeno and just holding each other close for comfort. Everything seems to slowly calm down afterwards, Uno cards getting discarded and yelling being replaced with soft whispers. “Hey guys?” Renjun pipes up. Mark lifts his head and holds back a laugh when he sees him.

Donghyuck and Jaemin are sprawled out over him fast asleep, rendering him trapped in an awkward position propped up against the couch. “I think it’s time we go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow.” Everyone makes a noise of agreement, already half asleep themselves. “Chenle, can you help me clean up?” Chenle sighs and prys himself from Jisung’s side, cleaning up the discarded cards and bottles with Renjun’s help. Jaemin and Donghyuck complain, clinging to Renjun when he tries to move. “Where are you going?” Jaemin grumbles, words slurring together. Renjun pats his head softly, shaking his head with a chuckle. “I’ll be back, loves. Just give me a minute.” 

Something tugs on Mark’s sleeve. “Hey. Come on.” Jeno murmurs, pulling him towards him. “Just a minute.” Jisung’s already curled up under a blanket, pulled up to his chin and cheeks dusted pink. “Night night kiddo.” He whispers, leaning down to give him a kiss on the forehead. Jisung smiles sleepily and nods. “Night night Markie.” He gives him a gentle pat on the head before returning back to his spot with Jeno, happily nudging himself into his arms with a sigh.

  
  


Pain.

That’s the first thing Mark feels when he wakes up. His head is pounding and he feels like screaming in agony for hours. He groans and tries to cuddle closer to Jeno, only finding him gone. He pulls himself to his feet, shuffling downstairs where he hears voices. “Looks like someone’s up.” He hears Jaemin say. Mark makes a grumpy noise in response. “Is there a bathroom anywhere around here?” He grumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Down the hall and to the left, bub.” Renjun says. 

He shuffles to the bathroom and groans, sickness piling up in his stomach. He falls to his knees and rather ungraciously throws up in the toilet, shuddering when he lifts his head up. He feels a hand push away the bangs from his face and another on his back, rubbing comforting circles. “Renjun! Can you get a water bottle please?” Of course it’s Jeno by his side, helping him the best he can. 

“You alright?” Jeno asks worriedly. Mark grunts, rubbing his eyes. “I’ll survive. A hangover won’t kill me.” Jeno helps him up and hands him a water bottle after he washes his face and mouth. “Do you need anything else?” Jeno asks as he leads him back to where everyone is. Mark groans, dragging his feet as he walks. “To sleep forever.” 

“Go lie down on one of the couches, I’ll bring you a blanket. We aren’t leaving just yet.” Jeno ushers Mark over and he happily obliges, flopping face first into the couch. He mumbles a quiet “thank you” when Jeno gently puts the blanket over him. He goes back to sleep, hoping to just sleep the headache off and feel better later. He sleeps until they decide it’s time to head out, being scooped up by Chenle and put in the back of the van with a pillow they stole under his head. 

Jeno agrees to drive for half of the day, Jisung running to the passenger seat. “Ready?” He asks with a glance over his shoulder. Everyone just groans in response. “Yeah, I figured. Well, here we go!” Jeno starts driving away, leaving the old mansion behind as they continue their journey east. 

Mark doesn’t wake up until about an hour or so later, when he feels a hand softly carding through his hair. He looks up and sees Renjun engaged in a conversation with Jaemin and Donghyuck, but still petting him like he’s a cat. He shifts so his head rests in his lap, snatching Renjun’s attention away from the topic at hand. “Morning, sleepyhead. Well, it’s not exactly morning anymore.” He says quietly. Mark just groans and happily leans into the touch.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Icky.”

“Eh, I figured.”

“Where’s Jisung?”

Renjun looks up. “In the front seat with Jeno.” Mark hums. “I’ll go talk to him later. I think I’m gonna stay here for now.” He makes himself comfortable, Renjun chuckling as he strokes his hair. “Alright.” He’s practically a cat in Renjun’s lap, smiling as he pets his head. He doesn’t manage to stay for long though, as Donghyuck ends up kicking him off. He sticks his tongue out as he crawls towards the front seat, resting his chin on the driver’s seat. “Hi.” He mumbles in Jeno’s ear. Jeno looks at him and smiles, squishing his cheeks with one hand. “Hi. I see you’re awake.” 

Mark giggles shyly, a blush spreading across his cheeks. “I am. How are you doing?” Jeno returns his gaze to the road, shrugging slightly. “I’m alright, could be better but I’m not horrible, ya know?” Mark nods, looking over at Jisung who’s gazing out of the car window. “And how about you, Sungie?”

“I’m bored. I wanna get there already.” He complains. Mark snorts, tapping his shoulder and reaching to hold his hand. “We’ll be there before you know it, kiddo.” Jisung scoffs and rolls his eyes, going back to staring out the window. Jeno and Mark share a look before laughing in unison. “Kids these days.” Mark jokes. 

“Back in my day, we suffered through road trips and dealt with the pain in our legs from sitting still for too long.” Jeno says in his best old man voice. “When I was a young lad, zombies were just old stories in TV shows and movies.” Mark adds, also doing his best impression. Jeno sighs, chuckling under his breath. “Oh what I’d give to go back to those days. Much simpler times.” 

“It’s not so bad at least. If it weren’t for the apocalypse, we wouldn't have met, hm?” Mark hums. Jeno grins, looking back at him happily. “You got me there.” Jisung snorts from his seat, giving Mark a look with a cocked eyebrow. “Gross.” Mark slaps him on the knee, shushing him aggressively. “Fuck off.” Jisung scoffs, sitting up suddenly. “I would if I could! But would you look at that! We’re stuck inside the car for the next several hours of our lives!” He complains sarcastically, crossing his arms and propping his legs on the dashboard. 

“...Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

“.....I’m hungry.”

“Ah. Well, don’t worry kiddo, we’ll be stopping soon any time I think. There should be some snacks in someone’s bag anyway.” He rummages through his own bag and finds some stale Goldfish, handing them to Jisung in the meantime. “Alright, I’m gonna go annoy someone to entertain myself.” He says before turning to everyone else, finding Jaemin, Donghyuck and Renjun all cuddled up in a tangle of limbs, giggling to each other softly. 

“Chenle!” He yells. Chenle squawks in return, looking up from where he’s sitting. “What?” Mark opens his arms, pouting as he gestures for Chenle to join him. “Do you want me to be your cuddle buddy?” He asks. Mark nods, grinning when he scoots over and gives him a tight hug. Mark finds himself enjoying Chenle’s company, face red from laughing too much. Renjun complains about them being too loud, gaining some middle fingers and tongues stuck out at him in return. 

“They’re too powerful, this is why we’ve never seen the two of them alone together.” Jaemin says. He turns to where Chenle’s sitting on Mark’s lap, the two whispering something to each other. “Are you two plotting something?” Donghyuck asks. Mark and Chenle share a glance before shrugging. “Can we stop before they eat us or something?” He shouts to Jeno. 

“We need to find somewhere to stop first!” Jeno yells back. Donghyuck pouts and huffs, crossing his arms and slouching against the wall. “If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?” Chenle asks. “I can already guess Mark’s answer.” Renjun snorts. Mark gasps and smacks him on the arm. “Shut up! I wouldn’t eat him!” 

“Mhm. Sure.” He says, narrowing his eyes at him. Jaemin laughs loudly. “If anything he’d eat you.” Mark blushes, swatting at Jaemin’s arm. “Moving on!” 

“I would eat...every single one of you. Just because.” Donghyuck decides. Renjun eyes him awkwardly. “Please don’t eat me.” Donghyuck looks between him and Jaemin. “If it’s any consolation, Jaemin’s getting eaten first. You can be last.” Jaemin sighs as he rests his head on Donghyuck’s shoulder. “That’s fair.”

“How about we don’t eat each other and stop at the abandoned mall up ahead?” Jeno shouts loudly over his shoulder, making everyone turn their attention towards the window. The mall looks trashed, broken store fronts and things scattered on the ground everywhere. “Ooo, can we go explore?” Chenle asks as he pokes his head to the front. Jeno slowly pulls up to the parking lot. “I mean, I guess. We can stretch our legs out as we walk around and get some fresh air.” 

“Hell yeah! Spooky old mall here we come!” He cheers. Everyone shuffles out of the van, groaning as they stretch and look at the empty building. Mark’s eyes travel over the parking lot, falling on an empty car a few yards away. He tugs on Jeno’s sleeve to get his attention. “Do you think there’s someone else here?” Jeno looks at where he’s gesturing, pursing his lips in thought. “I hope not, but if there is, let’s just hope they’re friendly.” 

Mark holds onto Jeno’s hand as they walk together, intertwining their fingers. He only notices when Jeno’s hand slips away, right before he quickly grabs his hand again. He hears Jisung and Chenle snicker behind him, shooting the two a death glare over his shoulder. Everyone seems to be exploring the old stores, stepping over knocked over mannequins and broken glass everywhere. “This just feels sad.” Renjun says as he makes his way towards the back. 

“A mall would probably be the worst place to be when a zombie virus hit, no?” Donghyuck thinks out loud. “People everywhere, nothing to really protect yourself, I wouldn’t be surprised if there're still some zombies crawling around.” Jaemin picks up a hanger and swings it around like a sword. “I dunno, I think I could defend myself with this.” Renjun laughs. “I’d like to see you try.” Jaemin pokes him a couple times in the side, giggling when Renjun swats it away.

They continue making their way through the bottom floor, ducking through a giant hole in the wall in one of the stores. Everything in the store is gone, it looks like it was used like a hide out more than anything. “I feel like we’re gonna find a dead body or something.” Jisung shudders, accidentally touching something slimy. “Well, I just found a zombie arm! So it doesn’t seem too far fetched.” Donghyuck says, waving around the detached undead arm. Jisung gags, running as he chases him with it. 

“Leave the kid alone Hyuckie!” Jaemin scolds, putting his hands on his hips and pouting. Jisung runs behind him, Jaemin snatching the arm away from Donghyuck. “Aw, boo. We should keep it.” Renjun picks up a first aid kit from the floor and opens it up. “No. No we shouldn’t.” He shoves it into his bag and moves on, eyeing Jaemin in hopes he’d put it down.

Mark laughs quietly, overlooking the mess everyone’s managed to make. Jeno smiles at him, squeezing his hand a little. “This is nice. We’re having fun.” Mark mumbles. Jeno snorts. “We sure are.” They share a smile before shyly looking away, turning their attention back to everyone. 

Mark turns around, and freezes. “Guys. Hide.” They all act fast and hide behind boxes and dressers, eyeing where Mark’s staring. There’s three people walking through the center of the mall, discussing something with each other he can’t exactly make out. They’re obviously armed, one of them carrying a bat over their shoulder. 

“Is there anywhere we haven’t checked yet?” One of them with dark red hair asks.

The dark haired one shakes their head. “Only the upstairs, by the looks of it. I doubt we’ll find anything useful though. It’s mostly clothing stores in here.”

“Well, you never know. Isn’t there a food court upstairs? Maybe we can raid some stuff from there.” 

“I guess. You okay Doyoung? You just kinda….stopped walking and started staring off into space.”

Doyoung, Mark assumes, is staring directly at where they’re hiding. “Hm? Oh, I just felt like we’re being watched.” The red haired one walks over and squeezes his hand, also looking in their direction. “We’ll keep an eye out, just in case. Come on, let’s check upstairs.” The trio disappear just as quickly as they showed up, walking up the old escalator to the second floor. 

Jisung and Chenle stare at each other, hands clamped over each other’s mouths. Donghyuck peaks his head out from the table he ducked under. “Is the coast clear?” He whispers. Mark nods, slowly standing up from where he’s crouched. “They seem nice at least.” Renjun says softly. 

“I hope they are.”

They keep looking through the bottom stores, ultimately finding nothing they can take. They stop at the foot of the escalator, eyeing each other nervously. “Should we go upstairs? They’re probably still up there.” Jeno asks. “Well, we can’t exactly guarantee they’ll be friendly with us.” Mark reasons. Jaemin shrugs. “We also outnumber them seven to three, if they tried fighting us they could probably easily be taken care of.” 

“He makes a good point!”

“Guess we’re going up. Keep your guard up everyone!” Jeno takes the lead as they walk up the escalator, eyes scanning around for signs of the other people. It’s eerily empty, only the sounds of their echoing footsteps accompanying them. Mark can see some flickering lights in the corner of his vision, ominously lighting up a mannequin. “This got creepy real fast.” Renjun whispers. “I feel like a ghost is gonna pop up and eat us.” Chenle spooks an unsuspecting Jisung when he’s not looking.

They explore some more stores, but there’s nothing useful they find. Jaemin does manage to find himself a new outfit, ditching his tattered jacket and old shirt for a long sleeved black turtleneck and orange patterned shirt. “You look good.” Renjun says with a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips. Donghyuck does the same, gently kissing him when he walks up to him. “I strongly agree.” Jaemin giggles, blushing at the attention. “Thank you.”

Chenle makes a vomiting noise in disgust. “You guys are gross.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes, wrapping his arms around their waists. “You’re just jealous you’re single.” He scrunches his nose up, walking away to go annoy Jisung.

“Come on guys, we still have a few more places left on this side to check out.” Mark reminds them, already waiting by the door. He turns to leave before stopping suddenly.

“Did you guys hear something—Oh. Oh hello.”

The trio from earlier bump into them, just as wide eyed as they are. “H…..Hi?” Mark responds awkwardly. “Never thought we’d see more humans around.” The red haired one says. He sticks his hand out for him to shake. “I’m Taeyong, it’s nice to meet you.” Mark smiles, gladly shaking his hand. “I’m Mark.”

“This is Doyoung, and that’s Jaehyun.” Taeyong introduces the other two, Jaehyun giving a small wave. Doyoung looks at him before looking back at Taeyong. “I told you we were being watched.” He rolls his eyes, patting him on the back. “I guess you were right, at least you can stop being paranoid now.” Mark laughs awkwardly. “Ah yeah, sorry about that. We’ve run into a couple people who’s first instinct is to attack us so we were just worried. I’m glad you guys are nice though.”

Jaehyun perks up curiously. “You guys have seen other humans? We’ve just seen zombie after zombie and a bird if we’re lucky.” Mark nods, noticing Jeno coming up behind him and intertwining their fingers. “I guess we should introduce everyone, hm? This is Jeno—“ Jeno rests his chin on Mark’s shoulder and waves, “—and over there is Renjun, Jaemin, Donghyuck and in that corner there’s Chenle and Jisung.” 

“Wow. There’s a lot of you.” Taeyong says softly. Jeno nods. “We’ve managed to stick together for a while. It’s more mouths to feed, but I don’t think I’d trade any of them for anything.” Mark coos, squishing Jeno’s face with his hand. Taeyong whispers something to Doyoung and Jaehyun, frowning and nodding as they discuss something amongst each other. “Do you guys wanna tag along with us? We’re almost done sweeping the top floor and there’s something we wanna investigate downstairs before we leave.”

Mark and Jeno exchange a glance, turning back to their friends for an answer. Jaemin shrugs rather unhelpfully, Renjun shaking his head while Donghyuck nods. “What was the question again?” Chenle asks loudly. “We’ll go.” Mark decides. 

They trail after the three of them, making some small talk as they investigate the mall. They even stop momentarily at the food court to rest their legs, Jisung finally getting to eat his lunch Renjun made. They push some tables together to make a massive one so the ten of them can sit together. Taeyong manages to sneak into some of the kitchens and attempts to scrounge up some food to make them something to eat. Mark yawns, plopping his head in Jeno’s lap. “Wake me up in five minutes.” He murmurs, taking a quick nap right there. Jeno laughs, gently patting the top of his head.

“You guys heading anywhere in particular? Or are you just driving around and hoping to survive?” Jaehyun asks Jeno, sipping from his water bottle. “Yes, actually! We’re heading to Florida, we heard something about a safe haven so we’re driving there in hopes of finding somewhere safe for all of us to stay.” Jeno explains. Jaehyun nods, humming in thought. “We haven’t heard about anything like that. We might have to follow you guys and check it out for ourselves.”

“The more the merrier.” Jeno says with a smile. Jaehyun smiles back. “That’s sweet. We actually had more people with us but we kinda...lost them, to put it lightly.” Jeno’s smile turns into a frown, eyes glittering with empathy. “Oh, I’m sorry. I understand.”

“Eh, there’s not much you can really do. Zombies don’t care about your friends, just feeding themselves and killing what stands in their way.” Hr says with a shrug, taking another sip. Jeno nods, looking over at where his friends are running around and goofing off. “Mhm. We almost lost Jisung to one. It’s a miracle he survived. Poor Mark, he was so worried. They’re brothers and he had to take the burden of raising Jisung through the apocalypse.” 

He looks down at Mark and sighs, realizing five minutes had passed but deciding to let him rest a little longer. “God, that sucks. Can’t even imagine that.” They hear a crash of Chenle knocking something over, Jisung squawking and yelling at him in return. “You guys are tough kids though. I believe in you guys.” Jeno smiles, eyes crinkling up as he does. “Thank you, Jaehyun.”

They sit together for a few more minutes, silently talking and watching as everyone else causes a disaster. Jaemin finds a little kiddy playground and complains when he’s too big for the slide, kicking at it in frustration. Doyoung picks it up with one hand. “You could use this as a shield.” He jokes, tossing the lady bug slide at Jaemin who yelps and drops it. “More like a projectile.”

Jeno pokes Mark in the side, giggling when he curls in on himself. “It’s been more than five minutes, bub. Come on, we gotta get moving.” He groans, slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “What’s left?” Taeyong picks up his bag, slinging it back over his shoulder. “Just the left side. And then there’s that thing we wanna check out on the exact opposite side, so it’ll take a hot minute to walk.”

They find nothing, as expected, just more wrecked clothing stores and broken glass. It’s a nice bonding experience though, Mark gets to know Taeyong, Doyoung and Jaehyun better, learning how they all got here. Mark snatches a hoodie he sees for himself, tying it tightly around his waist. He notices Jeno eyeing him. “What? I wanna be comfy!” He protests. He laughs, ruffling Mark’s hair. Mark huffs, puffing out his cheeks. 

Donghyuck manages to smuggle a Nintendo Switch and a copy of Animal Crossing into his bag, although Mark is unsure it’ll work. (Even if Donghyuck insists it will in Florida, he’s one-hundred percent positive.) “What’s this thing you guys wanted to see?” Mark asks as they make their way downstairs. “It’s this like, sealed up area that I’m not sure where it leads. We’re just curious what’s behind it. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Mark can definitely see what he means when he sees the boarded up area. Wooden planks are nailed to cover up windows, even though it looks like the wood is rotting. “Is that dried blood?” Renjun asks, pointing to the suspicious stain on the floor. Donghyuck scrunches his nose up in disgust. “Sure hope not.” Doyoung walks over, putting his hand on Taeyong’s shoulder. “Are you sure we should go in there? I have a bad feeling about this.” He says with a low voice. “We’ll be in and out quickly, don’t worry.” Taeyong assures him. 

“Do we just kick down the wood?” Chenle asks. Jaemin walks over and aggressively kicks at it, the plank easily coming out from under his foot. He pokes his head inside eagerly. “It’s dark in here!” He steps through quickly, coughing at the dust he kicks up. “Don’t go on ahead without us!” Donghyuck shouts, dragging Renjun by the hand with him. Mark turns towards Jeno, holding his hand for him. “Guess we’re going in.” Jeno takes his hand happily, squeezing it lightly. “I guess we are.” Mark ducks underneath the entrance, holding onto Jeno’s hand tightly.

Everyone pulls out their flashlights to illuminate the place up. Mark can only describe it as an abandoned Macy’s, except all the clothes and things had been replaced with crates and old boxes. Mark checks inside and he’s pleasantly surprised when he finds bullets and other kinds of ammo. “I guess whoever was here used this as their base area.” He says as he stores some for his glock. Jeno finds some opened cans of food nearby. “I guess so. Judging by how empty this place is though, I’m just gonna assume it didn’t end well for them.”

Jeno’s suspicions are confirmed when they hear a shriek. “Renjun! What’s wrong?” Donghyuck asks, rushing to his side. Renjun’s trembling as he backs away from the corner, eyes never leaving the scene in front of him. “I think I found a dead body.” He whispers. Mark winces when he sees it, gagging at the smell. Renjun did find a dead body, a half eaten one at that. Most of the legs are gone, probably being gobbled up by a zombie in passing. “That is...gross.” Jaehyun winces.

“Is it…moving?”

“Oh my fucking god don’t say that.”

Jaehyun takes a step closer to examine it.

“Guys? I think it’s still alive.” 

“Can we leave before it attacks us or something?” Jisung urges, pulling on Mark’s sleeve. They barely get to move before it suddenly springs to life, screeching and crawling towards Jaehyun. Doyoung quickly puts it down with a couple shots to the head. “Let’s get out of here, and fast.”

Zombies somehow manage to manifest from nowhere, pouring out from closets and bathrooms and dressing rooms and starting to swarm them. “I guess they were all hiding!” Chenle shouts. “Oh god, we’re surrounded.” Jisung wails. Chenle tightly grabs his hand, a determined scowl on his face. “There’s too many of them!” Donghyuck yells, knocking one in the face with his bat. Taeyong, Doyoung and Jaehyun seem to huddle close and start whispering to each other, nodding in agreement. “Mark! We’ll hold them off! You take the rest and escape!”

Mark blinks, shooting a ghoul that gets too close. “What?! Do you have a death wish?!” Taeyong quickly takes off the necklace he’s wearing and puts it around Mark’s neck. “Just start running, don’t worry about us.” He gives Mark a warm smile before turning back and bowling zombies down with his rifle. “You heard him! Make a run for it!”

There’s so much adrenaline rushing through Mark’s body he can feel his heart beating out of his chest. He hears something’s skull crunch under their feet as they sprint, gunshots ringing through the air. Mark makes the mistake of glancing over his shoulder and he wants to cry. They’re swarmed by what he can estimate is hundreds of zombies, struggling to fight them off. They’re keeping them distracted as they run off at the cost of their own lives.

Mark hears his least favorite sound.

The sickening noise of teeth ripping into flesh and ear piercing screams.

“Do you have the keys?” He yells at Jeno. Jeno nods, half paying attention. “Give them to me! I’ll drive!” Jeno reaches into his pocket and tosses them to him, Mark catching them in mid air. They make it outside, but the zombies must’ve gotten bored because now their full attention is on them. Everyone quickly scrambles inside, Mark’s hands shaking so much he’s scared he won’t be able to turn the van on. He manages to work it though, hitting the pedal. They speed off into the distance, leaving the old run down mall and Taeyong, Doyoung and Jaehyun behind them.

After about five minutes, Mark pulls over to the side of the road. His chest feels too tight, like he’s unable to breathe. Jisung’s right beside him in the passenger seat, holding his hand and encouraging him to take deep breaths. He can’t stop trembling, feeling his eyes water. “Remember the square breathing technique Mom always taught us, in for five, hold, out for five, hold, and repeat. That’s it, you’re doing good.” Jisung’s voice is gentle on his ears, grounding himself better. 

He manages to even his breathing, letting out a long sigh and holding his face in his hands. “Are you okay?” He asks quietly. Mark looks over at him and shakes his head silently. “Not really, but thank you Sungie.” He turns and looks over at the backseat. “How are you guys feeling?” Renjun sniffles and wipes his face, nestled in between Jaemin and Donghyuck. “Bad. That was horrifying.” He mumbles. Jaemin nods in agreement. “I feel like curling up into a ball and never moving again.”

Jeno’s hugging Chenle tightly, a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I feel sick.” Chenle mumbles. Jeno looks up at Mark, worry in his eyes. “Could be better. How about you?” Mark shrugs, unsure what to say. “Scared, I guess. Let’s just...keep driving until we find somewhere to stop for the night.” Mark falls silent, hands gripping the wheel as he drives. Jisung keeps glancing at him, but he chooses not to say anything.

They stop at an abandoned church, setting up in the far left corner of the building. Mark stares off into space, knees pulled closely to his chest. He fingers the necklace Taeyong gave him, the little star pendant seeming duller somehow.“I think I’m gonna...head to bed early.” He whispers to Jisung. Jisung gives him a worried look. “Oh? Alright. Sleep well.” Mark gives him his nightly forehead kiss before heading off to where they set up their sleeping area. He curls up under a blanket, pulling it all the way to his nose.

He doesn’t sleep though, he stays wide awake staring at the wall. He really doesn’t feel tired at all, he just lied so he can have some alone time to process everything. About an hour later everyone else decides to head in for the night, shuffling around and making themselves comfortable. He screws his eye shut in his best attempt to look asleep. Jeno sleeps right next to him like always. He’s ninety percent sure he can tell how tense he is right now, but if he does he says nothing. 

Jeno instead wraps an arm around his waist, holding him tightly. “Night, Mark. Sleep well.” He whispers into his hair. Mark sighs and scoots himself closer. “You too.” He stays awake for a while longer, anxiously looking around before eventually falling asleep. He doesn’t sleep for long before he’s awoken by a horrifying nightmare, yelping as he sits up. He looks around and sighs when he realizes he didn’t wake anyone up. He’s trembling, taking deep breaths to recollect himself.

Next to him Jeno groans, reaching for the space next to him. He slaps around until he finds Mark’s hand, immediately relaxing and sighing in relief. “Come back to bed, baby. It’s lonely without you.” He mumbles in his sleep, slightly pulling on Mark’s hand. Mark freezes. Baby? He’d be lying if he said he didn’t like the pet name. “I’m right here, don’t worry.” He responds softly. He lies back down, Jeno’s arm resting on his waist as he sighs dreamily. He seems to fall back asleep, Mark feeling his breath against his neck. He completely forgets about the nightmare he had, opting to cuddle Jeno until he can sleep again.

  
  


“Can you hurry up already?” Jaemin protests. Jeno shushes him aggressively, shooing him away. “I don’t wanna wake him up!” He scream-whispers, glancing back down at Mark who’s peacefully wrapped up in a blanket burrito. He looks cute. “The only reason you’re here and not in the van is so you can get him up.” Jaemin responds, hands on his hips grumpily. “Why me! Why couldn’t you do it?”

“Because he only listens to you!”

“He does not!”

“Does to! Watch.” Jaemin walks over and crouches down to Mark’s side, gently shaking his shoulder. “Markie, come on. It’s time to get up and back on the road.” He whispers. Mark doesn’t budge. “Fuck off.” He grumbles from under his blanket. Jaemin looks over at Jeno, holding up his hands in exasperation. “Alright, your turn.” Jeno rolls his eyes at him, annoyed. “Hey, Mark. You gotta get up now, bub. We need to go.” He murmurs, running his hand delicately through Mark’s hair. Mark slowly opens his eyes, smiling when he sees his face.

Jaemin snorts from where he’s standing behind Jeno. Mark shakes his head, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself. “But I’m comfy here.” Jeno giggles, caressing Mark’s cheek with his thumb. “You can be comfy in the van, you know.” Mark hums, scooting himself closer to Jeno. “Good point. But that requires moving.” He pouts, making Jeno’s heart melt. “Do you need me to carry you?” Jeno asks.

Mark shakes his head, slowly sitting up. “I’ll walk.” He yawns, wrapping his arms around Jeno’s torso and snuggling up to him. Jeno cups Mark’s face with both hands, the pair practically nose to nose with each other. “And when will that happen?” He teases, Mark giggling and hiding his face in his shoulder. “Just a minute.” 

Mark likes this, being super close with Jeno, lazily holding onto him as he wakes himself up. He swears Jeno’s lips brush against his forehead and his heart skips a beat. The moment is ruined however, by a very impatient Jaemin. He kicks Jeno in the back, making him yelp. “Gross. Can we get a move on? Renjun’s gonna come out yelling at any minute.” Mark sighs and slowly gets to his feet, holding onto Jeno’s hand as he picks up his stuff and heads to the van. 

“Finally!” Jisung cheers when he sees Mark walk out. Mark rolls his eyes and laughs, hopping up next to Jisung. “Took you long enough.” Renjun scoffs. “Are we all ready?”

Everyone nods, roaring to get back on the road again. Renjun nods and he starts up the van, continuing their journey east. 

Mark sighs, resting his head in Jeno’s lap. He looks up at him with a smile, giggling when Jeno smushes his cheeks. “Really?” Jeno nods, brushing the hair out of his face. “You have a very squishable face.” He says, booping Mark’s nose with the end of his finger. Mark snorts, pushing his face away shyly. “Oh shush.” Jeno pinches his cheeks, making him squeal. “I don’t think I will.” Mark boos him, opting to hide his face in his hands. 

Jeno pries them away in return, leaning down so he can kiss his knuckle like a prince. Mark giggles, face turning even redder. “Are you going to sweep me off of my feet, your majesty?” He jokes, grinning widely when he sees Jeno’s face burn red. “I— Maybe one day.” Mark raises an eyebrow, relishing in the opportunity to tease him. “Is that a promise?” The color rushes to Jeno’s cheeks, a soft laugh escaping his lips. “Possibly.” 

Mark sits up, smiling at Jeno over his shoulder. “I’ll hold you to it then.” Jeno laughs nervously and nods, fiddling with the strings on his hoodie. Mark turns and tunes into the conversation everyone else is having. “Renjun, getting into a fight with you is like fighting an Oompa Loompa.” Chenle shouts to the front seat, Renjun flipping him off as a response. 

“What did I walk in on?” Mark asks as he scoots next to Jisung. Chenle turns back towards him, a serious look on his face. “If you were one of the kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, how would you die?” Mark blinks. “Huh?” Chenle repeats himself, clearly invested in this debate they seem to be having. “Oh uh...I’d probably get torn to shreds by those squirrels or something.” 

“Boo! I already called dibs on being Veruca!” Donghyuck protests as he pokes his head back. Mark sighs. “Fine, I try to rock an Oompa Loompa’s shit and instead I get my shit rocked.” Jaemin stifles a laugh. “That’s one way to go I guess.”

“I’d just like to say I would throw all of you into that chocolate river if the opportunity presented itself.” Renjun says loudly. Jaemin rolls his eyes. “Love you too, babe.” 

“Oh you two are spared, but everyone else? Free reign bitch.” 

“I’m hurt.” Jeno pouts. Renjun sticks his tongue out at him playfully. “Alright Jeno, how would you die?” Jaemin asks. Jeno blinks at him. “How did we get on this topic anyway?” Jisung just shrugs. “Sometimes the conversation just flows like that.” Jeno thinks for a moment. “Well, I dunno. I’d probably accidentally fall down a pipe or something.” 

“Lame! Get violently ripped apart like the rest of us!” Donghyuck sniffles. Jeno sighs. “Judging by what we’ve seen recently, I think I’ll pass. Doesn’t sound very fun.”

“You got me there.”

Jaemin whispers something into Jeno’s ear which makes his face flush red, making him suddenly shove him away and glare at him menacingly. “What?” Mark asks. Jeno tells him not to worry about it while Jaemin gives him a devious wink. Mark looks at Jisung in confusion, but he just shrugs. Jaemin leans back and whispers something again to him, Jeno squeaking and putting him in a chokehold. 

Jaemin lets out a gargled screech, trying to pry Jeno’s arm away. “What did he say this time?” Mark asks. Jaemin opens his mouth but Jeno quickly clamps his hand over it, smiling innocently at him. “Nothing! Don’t worry about it.” Chenle giggles, finding Jaemin’s agony amusing. Mark feels confused, but he decides not to press on. 

Mark sits with Jisung next to the window, laughing about whatever they can. They reminisce about old memories, the new ones they’ve made with everyone and cracking jokes with each other. Jisung giggles, resting his head against the glass, “It’s crazy, huh? How far we’ve come?” He says wistfully. Mark nods, laughing and sitting back. “Yep. It’s been a ride.” They smile at each other before falling into a comfortable silence looking out the window. 

Jeno comes over and busies himself by playing with Mark’s fingers, resting his head against his shoulder. “Hi, bub.” Mark mumbles. Jeno hums in acknowledgement. “Bored?” Jeno nods silently. “Mhm, we’ll be there soon enough.” Mark holds his hand, making Jeno feel happy as he sits there curled up to him.

Their silence is broken by a scream from Jisung. 

“Stop the van!” He shouts, Renjun suddenly hitting the brakes and jerking everyone forward. “What! What is it?” He yells, looking at where Jisung’s staring out the window. Jisung tugs on Mark’s arm, pointing at a string of houses that feel...familiar. “Mark. That’s our old neighborhood. I can see our house.” Mark presses his face up against the window, gasping when he sees it. 

Jisung’s right. That is their old house. How did they end up here? Have they really driven that far?

“Renjun? Can you drive over there? Please?” Mark asks, practically pleading with him to go. Renjun nods in understanding. He turns onto the old road, driving past the old houses of their neighbors. Mark’s heart breaks when he thinks what might’ve happened to them. They could be out there or dead for all they know. “Which one is your house?” Renjun asks as he drives slowly. 

“That one!” The siblings shout in unison, pointing at the red-shingled house they’re all too familiar with. Renjun stops, everyone turning their attention toward them. Mark and Jisung don’t speak, but they think the same thing.

“Can we...go inside alone? Just the two of us.” Mark knows he’ll probably cry, and he feels like everyone’s seen him cry more times than necessary. Besides, it just feels better being alone with Jisung together. “Sure, you two take all the time you need.” Donghyuck urges, gesturing for them to go. “We’ll wait here. Holler if you need anything.” Jeno says softly, squeezing Mark’s hand before letting go. “Alright. We’ll try not to take too long.”

  
  


Mark takes a deep breath as he stands in front of their door. The doormat is the same, the same faded “Welcome” from when they were younger. Their mom never wanted to change it, she had a sentimental attachment to it for a reason Mark could never understand. “Do you still have your house keys?” Jisung asks him, “or are we breaking in?” Mark reaches for his keychain, the one with a ton of things on it and his key. “Let’s hope it’s not….rusted or anything.” Mark pushes it in and turns it, a satisfying click sounding out.

He holds his breath as he pushes the door open, letting it out once he sees the familiar sight. Everything is the same, their living room and the staircase leading upstairs, the big clock that doesn’t work properly, the rug with the stain of their dad’s spilled coffee that never seemed to wash out, it’s all still there. One thing is very different though. It’s in complete disarray, as if a hurricane somehow blew around the room.

“Do you think...everyone’s still here?” Jisung whispers. Mark looks around. “There’s only one way to find out.” Mark approaches the stairs, glancing down at Jisung. “Do you wanna check out the bottom floor while I do the top floor?” Jisung nods, already walking towards the kitchen. The floorboards creak under Mark’s feet, making him wince at how loud they are. It reminds him a little of his first encounter with Jeno. 

He trembles as he steps onto the top floor, hundreds of memories flooding back to him in the moment. There’s nothing much in the bathroom, as expected. The first room he enters is Jisung’s and it almost feels like whiplash. The walls are brightly colored and covered in posters of bands and anime, almost exactly the way they left it. He smiles to himself. Jisung’s changed a lot in the last couple of years. He knows he has to call Jisung up to check it out himself soon.

Across the hall from Jisung’s room is their older brother’s room, and it looks like a wreck. His closet is thrown open and most of the clothes are gone, while his stuff is scattered on the floor. It looks like it was left in a hurry. “Oh.” Mark knows he always kept a framed picture of all of them on his shelf, but when he looks it's no longer there. Did him and their parents make a run for it? One thing is still left though. 

A little brown teddy bear with black buttons for eyes, colorful patches sewn over spots. The three of them were always known for being rather...accidentally destructive with their old toys so their mom always sewed patches over holes. Mark still has his lion with him from when he was last here. He takes the bear with him, putting it in his bag and leaving before he starts getting emotional. 

The next room is his, and he dreads entering it but he does anyway. Everything is the same, except it’s all covered in dust. He walks over and sits on his bed, looking around his childhood bedroom. It feels weird, yet also calming. Like Jisung’s room, his walls are covered in band and movie posters, the tape starting to peel off the walls. His guitar sits in the corner, untouched for years. He gets up and carefully picks it up, strumming the untuned strings. It sounds...bad, and he doesn’t exactly remember how to play, but it feels nice. He puts it back, knowing it’s probably for the best to not bring anything else heavy.

He’s about to leave when he feels a presence at the door. “Jisung?” He doesn’t remember hearing him come upstairs. He turns around and feels his blood run cold.

“Mom?”

His mom is standing in the doorway, except something’s wrong. His mom doesn’t have yellow eyes and rotting skin. It takes a few seconds for it to process in his brain. His mother’s been turned into a zombie. She steps closer, and Mark’s heart shatters into a million pieces. There’s familiarity in her eyes, as if he’s familiar to her but she can’t quite place it. “Mom, it’s me. Mark, remember?” He pleads, feeling himself back up against the wall. He doesn’t know what to do, he certainly doesn’t want to hurt her, but he doesn’t have many other options.

Her eyes seem to glaze over, making up her mind on her one goal. Flesh. She roars and lunges at him, tackling him to the ground. He reacts slowly, struggling to fight her off. She tries biting at him, clawing at his arms. He screams, flailing his legs around. He can’t reach for any weapons, it’s just him and his fists. I’m gonna die by the hands of my zombie mom, he thinks to himself. He closes his eyes and waits for the dreadful feeling of teeth tearing into him.

It doesn’t come, though. Instead, he hears loud footsteps and a sudden thunk and her body flies off of him, blood splattering on his face. Jisung stands over him holding a baseball bat, panting heavily. “Are you okay?” He asks frantically, pulling Mark to his feet. “Mom’s dead. She tried eating me.” He whispers. Jisung winces and examines her body, poking her with his foot. “Talk about a family reunion.” 

Mark feels his hands shake, digging his nails into his palm. “Is Dad still around?” He asks softly. “Uhh..yeah, about that,” Jisung laughs awkwardly, “To put it lightly, you know the Haunted Mansion at Disney and how you enter that room at the beginning and the Ghost Host does his whole speech and then he says ‘Of course, there’s always my way’ and then you look up and see the dude in the raftors?” 

“Um….yes?”

“He’s like that.”

“...That’s a very complicated way to say you found him hanging.”

“Well I didn’t want to say it!” Jisung says defensively. “His legs are also um….half eaten? I don’t know if you’d want to see it.” Mark sighs, glancing back down at their mom. “Where is he?” 

“The downstairs closet.”

Mark regrets looking, walking in and immediately walking out. He feels sick to his stomach, taking deep breaths and leaning up against the wall. “This isn’t what I expected when I thought about coming home.” He whispers. Jisung shakes his head. “I don’t think we could’ve ever imagined this.” Jisung wipes some of the blood off his face for him, holding his hand out. “Let’s head back. There’s a lot of bad vibes here.” Mark nods, happily accepting it and following him out the front door. Mark feels numb.

“Hey! Did you guys find anything?” Jaemin asks cheerfully. His smile falls when he sees their faces. Mark doesn’t say anything, hopping back into the van and curling up in a corner. “It’s...a long story. Can we just go?” Jisung says. Renjun nods silently, starting the van up again and driving back to the direction they were heading. The van falls uncomfortably silent, only the sound of their breathing and the engine breaking the silence. Jeno tries to comfort Mark, but he pulls away and scoots himself further into the corner.

They drive for a few more hours, ultimately stopping in an open field for the night because they can’t find anywhere to stay. They start making work on a campfire to keep them warm. Mark stares off into space, trying to process his thoughts. He gets up and walks away from the group, further into the field. He hears his name being called, but no one follows after him. 

He’s about to break. He feels like a faucet that’s about to overflow. He’s been holding so much in that it’s all become too much. He waits until he’s a sizable distance from everyone else before falling to his knees. 

He takes a shaky breath, and screams.

It feels kind of relieving to let it all out, but he’s also sobbing hysterically in the middle of a grass field, so how good can it be? Of course he hears footsteps rush towards him, he should’ve expected it as he painfully wails and tears flow down his face. Mark feels someone grab his shoulders, hands moving up to his face, “Hey hey hey, Mark baby, what’s wrong? Talk to me.” He recognizes Jeno’s voice, trying his hardest to be gentle.

Mark cries, shaking his head frantically. Jisung holds his hand tightly, trying his best to comfort him. “Deep breaths, Markie. Try to focus. What’s wrong?” Mark takes a shuddering breath, wiping at his eyes. “Everything. Everything sucks and it’s horrible!” He sniffles. Jeno wipes his tears away as he sobs. “Breathe, bub. Anything specific that sucks or is it really just...everything?” Mark looks up at him with heartbroken eyes, struggling to find words.

“Everything just….hurts.”

“Emotionally, or physically?”

“Both. 

Jeno purses his lips, rubbing up and down Mark’s arm. “Care to elaborate?” He shakes his head, holding back a sob. “It’s all too much. Everything feels like too much.” Jeno opens his arms and Mark buries his face in his chest, crying into Jeno’s shirt. Jeno attempts to help him calm down, but Mark just keeps sobbing. His sorrow breaks Jeno’s heart, but there’s not much he can do. 

He eventually stops crying, cries turning into hiccups and sniffles. Jeno and Jisung help him up, holding his hands as they walk all the way back. Mark hops into the van, crawling as far away as he can and pulling his knees to his chest. “Food’s ready, whenever you guys are ready.” Renjun says softly. Jeno turns to Jisung and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You go eat, I’ll talk to him.” Jisung opens his mouth to protest, but Jeno insists. 

“Hey.” Jeno whispers. Mark looks up and sighs, scooting to make room. He sits next to him, letting Mark his head against his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything, he knows Mark will open up when he’s ready. He brushes the hair from his face, tucking it behind his ear. 

“My mom tried to eat me. Both of my parents are dead.” He says quietly. 

“Oh.”

“Everyone’s dying, Jeno. Everyone we meet either tries to kill us or dies.” He squeezes his arms tightly. “Why are we still here if we’re all just gonna get eaten anyway? If more lives get taken, what’s the point in still kicking around? How long until one of us is next?” His voice is quiet, barely above a whisper as he speaks. 

Jisung sends him a worried look from where he sits near the end of the van. “Oh, Mark.” Jeno says sadly. He pulls him into a tight hug, Mark feeling tears well up in his eyes again. “I’m so scared Jeno, so scared. Our parents are dead, and judging the circumstances our brother probably is too. I almost lost Jisung, I don’t want anything else to happen to him. He’s the only other member of our family left, and I know that for sure now. If anything worse happens to him or anyone else—“ Mark lets the tears fall down his face, “I don’t know what I’d do.” 

Jeno holds Mark’s face sadly, wiping his tears away. “I’m so sorry, bub.” He whispers. Mark laughs dryly. “Don’t be, there really isn’t much we can do. I just have to...move on I guess.” Jeno frowns. “You don’t have to move on immediately. You’re allowed to grieve as long as you need, these things take time to heal.” Mark sighs, Jeno resting his hands on Mark’s waist. “As for Jisung, I still plan on keeping my promise, remember?” He smiles softly. “I remember.”

“Good.”

Mark lets out a sigh, curling up in Jeno’s arms. He feels completely drained, not wanting to move from his spot. He doesn’t notice Jisung entering the van until he feels him next to him. He whispers something to Jeno he can’t quite hear, nodding and sliding out of the van. “Hey, kiddo.”

Mark says softly.

“Hey. Feeling better?” Jisung asks him. Mark lets out a huff, resting his head against his shoulder. “Not really. At least I’m alive, I guess.”

“How about you? They were your parents too, kiddo.” Jisung sighs, letting Mark cuddle up to him. “I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think everything has fully set in yet.” He admits sadly. Mark nods, silence falling over the two of them. 

“I’m sorry.” He says quietly.

“Sorry?” Jisung snorts. “What for?”

Mark takes a shaky breath. “Maybe...if I hadn’t suggested going on that trip back then...we would’ve been with them when the zombies hit and we’d all be alive together..” His voice is quiet, barely above a whisper, Jisung straining to hear him. “Mark…. don’t blame yourself for this. There’s no way we could’ve known what would’ve happened. God, we could’ve ended up like them if we did, we’ll never know. I think we made our decisions and fate just decided what would happen. Maybe their time was up, I don’t know. I think right now we can just be glad it wasn’t us, and carry on.”

He looks at Mark with kind eyes, a soft smile spreading across his face. Mark sniffles quietly. “When did you grow up?” Jisung chuckles, pulling him into a hug. “When we had to learn to fight to survive.” Mark sighs, but it's a happy sigh this time. “The tables have turned on me. I’m so used to being the older brother giving advice and hugs and being the shoulder to cry on that now it feels a little weird I guess.”

Jisung giggles, patting him on the head. “Well, I’ll play the big brother. Just for today.” Mark smiles, a big genuine smile on his face. “Thank you, Sungie.” He enjoys his company, he’s the last family member he has after all. “You’re a good kid.” 

“Thank you. I know.”

Jisung laughs when Mark punches him in the arm, pressing his face against his shoulder. Mark slides his head into his lap, sighing when he combs his fingers through it.

“Jisung?”

“Mhm?”

“What was that lullaby you really liked? The one you always sang?”

“Oh, All is Found?”

“Can you..sing it for me? Please?”

A fond smile spreads across Jisung’s face. “Of course.” Jisung’s voice is pleasant, singing loud enough for only the two of them to hear. Memories come flooding back to him of Jisung when they were a couple years younger, blasting this song around the house after they watched Frozen 2. They were much simpler times. Mark relaxes completely, falling asleep shortly after. Jisung shifts him so his head rests on a pillow, tucking him in with one of the blankets lying around. 

“Sleep well, Mark.” He whispers, pressing a light kiss to his forehead like he always does for him. He slides out of the van, leaving Mark be for the night. “How is he doing?” Jaemin asks quietly, voice full of concern. Jisung lets his feet dangle over the side of the van as he speaks. “He’s asleep right now, god knows he needs some rest. But he’ll be okay, I’m sure of it. It’s just gonna take a little bit of time.”

  
  
  


That night everyone practically has to play Tetris to position themselves to sleep in the van, not wanting to sleep outside. It’s kind of cramped, but no one seems to mind. They’re back on the road as usual when Mark wakes up, groggily yawning and rubbing his eyes. He wordlessly settles into Jeno’s side, tuning out whatever random conversation everyone’s decided to have. 

Jeno reaches for his hand, intertwining their fingers together. He looks down at him and smiles, mouthing a silent ‘Good morning’ before pulling him a little closer. Mark does the same, a big grin spreading across his face. Jisung notices him and he scoots over, a concerned look in his eyes. “Sleep well? Are you feeling good?” He whispers. Mark nods and gives a thumbs up. “A little better.” He replies quietly. “That’s good.”

Mark doesn’t say much during the ride, keeping to himself and staying quiet. He pipes up occasionally, indulging in the weird questions everyone asks to entertain themselves. He does feel tired of sitting for a long time though, feeling happy when they stop at an old grocery store. 

Jisung tugs on Mark’s jacket sleeve. “Do you know when you just...have like, a bad feeling in your gut about some place? Cause I’m getting that feeling right about now.” He says worriedly. Mark puts his hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. If anything does happen, we’re all armed and ready.” 

“I guess you’re right.” He sighs wearily. Mark holds his hand comfortingly, smiling at him warmly. “We’ll be okay, I promise. Now come on, let’s go before everyone leaves us back here.” 

Jeno grunts as he slides the door open, prying it out from the frame. It’s extremely spacious on the inside, looking more like a wholesale store more than anything. Mark can’t help but feel like he’s being watched right now. 

“Do you guys wanna choose a little area to stop in, or should we just sit down he—“

“Freeze. Don’t move another fucking step.”

Renjun can’t even finish his sentence before a gun is pointed at his face suddenly. Soon enough, all seven of them are surrounded by dark clothed figures with masks covering their mouths and black hats. Mark quickly does a head count and there’s eight of them surrounding them in a circle. They’re just slightly outnumbered. 

“We don’t take kindly to strangers.” The shortest one says angrily. Donghyuck snorts and mumbles under his breath. “We can see that.” He gets kicked in the shin by one of them, cursing loudly. 

“What do you want from us?” Jeno yells. The one standing beside Mark speaks up. “Want? Nothing much. Maybe your heads on a platter for trespassing.” Jaemin chokes. “What?!”

“This is our place! You can’t just waltz in here! You guys were probably gonna steal from us, weren’t you?” One with blonde hair poking out from his hat demands. “It’s the apocalypse! Everyone’s stealing from everyone!” Chenle protests, yelping when he stares the barrel of a gun straight in the face. 

“And that won’t stop us from fighting you for trying to steal from us.”

They’re pushed closer, backs pressing together. “Do we have a plan?” Mark whispers harshly. Jisung looks around nervously. “Nope.” Renjun slowly removes one of the grenades from his belt, pressing it into Jaemin’s hand. “This is a smoke grenade. Drop it on the count of three, and we’ll all scatter and try to regroup at the exit again because they’re blocking it right now, got it?” 

Jaemin nods, hoping everyone else heard him. “Any last words?” The short one says. Renjun counts down, Jaemin pulling the pin from the grenade and dropping it behind him. 

“Oops?”

“Three! SCATTER!” 

The room is then filled with smoke, everyone running off in different directions. Mark feels scared when he loses track of Jisung, hearing gunshots ringing out. One of them tracks him easily, running after him through the shelves. He grabs Mark’s backpack, yanking him backwards. Mark blindly swings his fist, landing a punch to the face. He knocks his hat off, scrambling up and pushing a shelf down behind him to block his path. 

“Jisung!” He screams, frantically looking around for him. Mark gets lost, hearing yells and screams in the distance that just concern him even more. He sees one of the hat people and he ducks behind a shelf of soaps and stuff and holds back a gasp.

Jeno stands in front of Jisung protectively, protecting him from where they’re cornered. Mark’s brain goes blank, seeing his brother and close friend in a life-or-death situation. He can’t easily grab his gun from where it’s in his bag, and he nervously eyes how the man has his finger on the trigger.

Mark’s legs move before his brain can think. He’s not about to let anything happen to the two of them.

Everything seems to happen in slow motion for him, shoving Jeno out of the way.

  
  


Mark hears a bang.

  
  


He only registers what happened when the ringing leaves his ears and he hears Jisung’s screams. He touches his abdomen and sees blood smeared on his fingers. “Oh.” 

The next few minutes happen so fast. The next thing Mark knows he’s lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He makes out Jisung’s face, yelling in a panic. He hears a dull thunk and the thud of a body hitting the ground, unsure of what it could be. Soon Jeno rushes over, yelling something to Jisung. He’s being lifted into the air, letting out a sharp hiss of pain.

“It hurts, oh god it hurts so much.” He winces, clutching onto Jeno’s shirt. He can’t tell what’s happening, he hears so much yelling it hurts his head. Jeno’s frantically running with him in his arms. His vision starts to blur, black clouding the corners of his vision. He’s set down, recognizing the familiar dirty ceiling of the van.

Jeno’s crying, seeing tears streaming down his face. Jisung grabs his hand, squeezing it tightly. “You’re gonna be okay, you’ll be okay Markie.” He says, but it sounds more like he’s trying to reassure himself. He hears yelling for Donghyuck to drive faster. Jeno presses their foreheads together, sobbing quietly. “I broke my promise. I’m sorry.”

Mark smiles weakly, reaching up and cupping his cheek and wiping his tears away. “No you didn’t, I just made it mine to keep.” Renjun fusses over him, trying his hardest to stop the bleeding. “Stay still, conserve as much energy as you can.” He urges. There’s panic rising in his voice. He’s really not sure if he’ll make it. He tries his best to carry on for Jisung.

“Jeno?”

He gestures for him to lean down, and he puts his hand on his cheek. He leans up slightly, pressing a kiss to Jeno’s lips. He feels tingly, happiness spreading throughout his body at the feeling. “I love you. So much. I adore you.” He whispers, smiling slightly. Jeno sniffles, wiping his face with his fist. “I love you too. More than you could ever imagine.” Mark feels happy, a weird warmness in his chest considering the circumstances. He turns to Jisung and smiles widely, even if it hurts a little. “Jisung? You're a good kid. The best little brother around.” 

Jisung sniffles and nods, scooting closer to him. “Stop saying shit like that. It makes it sound like you’re dying.” Renjun looks up, clearly stressed out. “It’s because he is!”

“Shut up! He’ll live!”

Mark’s eyelids feel heavy. He looks up, getting one last look at Jisung and Jeno as his world starts to go dark. “I love you guys.”

  
  


Mark’s eyes slowly fall shut.

  
  


He’s pretty sure he’s dead. At least it feels like it. His entire torso hurts so much, he wants to scream but he can’t. He must be dead, because he sees faces he doesn’t recognize looming over him. But is he? He sees Jisung, looking incredibly panicked. Jisung isn’t dead. At least he thinks he isn’t. He registers Jeno’s face, holding onto his hand. He says something that sounds muffled. Mark has so many things he wants to say right now but he feels like he can’t move. 

Another face pops into view, one he’s never seen before. A light shines in his face and they have a surgical mask on. 

“This might hurt. A lot.” They say. Mark can’t even process the sentence when he feels a blinding pain in his side, letting out a scream of agony and gripping Jeno’s hand tightly. He blacks out instantly, falling back into unconsciousness. 

He’s screaming at himself to wake up, but nothing seems to happen. He has dreams, dreams of his parents that fade too quickly for him to properly grasp at. He feels phantom hands on his cheeks, warm and familiar. It makes him think of his mom. A voice suddenly breaks through the silence.

“Your time isn’t up. Jisung still needs you. Wake up.”

  
  


Mark’s eyes fly open.

  
  


His ears are ringing, and the light kinda hurts his eyes. He squints, only making out ceiling tiles above his head. His lower half feels numb, barely able to register the feeling in his hand. He hears voices happily chattering away not far beside him, straining to hear their conversation. 

“I tried telling her that, but she didn’t listen!” A voice complains. Someone else laughs softly, clinking some glasses around. “What did you expect? That’s just how she is.” The first person snorts, voice now slightly muffled. “And we love her for it.” 

He hears the sounds of wheels clicking on the floor, followed by a scoff and a giggle. “You’re gonna run into something.” The second voice warns. “No I won’t! I’ve gotten good at controlling this thing—“

Mark sees a figure whiz by on one of those rolly doctor chairs, making eye contact with him and yelping. They fall out of the chair and crash onto the floor, groaning in pain. “I told you!” The other person laughs. The figure Mark saw stands up and grumbles as they pick up pieces of a sandwich on the floor. “It’s not my fault he scared me!” They walk over and throw the rest of the sandwich away, walking back over to Mark. “Gyuri, can you do me a favor and tell Jisung and everyone else he’s awake now?” Mark sees Gyuri as she walks over towards the door. She has long brown hair tied back in a low ponytail, wearing what looks like purple doctor’s scrubs.

“Which one’s Jisung again?”

“He’s the one who keeps losing to Jiheon in chess.”

“Ohhh yeah I remember now! I’ll be right back.” She says as she opens the door, leaving quickly and leaving the door slightly ajar. “Well, it’s a nice surprise to see you up. Didn’t expect it to be so soon though, you cut my lunch short.”

“I’m sorry.” Mark says quietly. They snort, sitting back on the chair and rolling towards him, a clipboard in hand. “Don’t be, it’s not so bad. I’m sure you have lots of questions?”

Mark nods. “Uhh...Who are you? And where am I?”

“Well, my name is Hayoung! It’s nice to formally meet you. You already kinda met Gyuri. You’re in a doctor’s office that’s being used as a base, your friends rolled in a few days ago and it’s lucky they got here when they did, you might’ve died if that bullet wound wasn’t treated any quicker. Your friends have been waiting for you, especially that blonde one, Jeno I believe? He’s been staying by your side for as long as he could, Jisung too, we’ve had to kick them out a couple times.”

The entire time she speaks she scribbles down something on the clipboard, but Mark doesn’t bother asking what. Probably notes or something. “How are you feeling?” Mark thinks for a moment. “I’m kinda thirsty. And hungry.” He says sheepishly. 

“Ah, we’ll get you something soon. Anything else?”

“Um...Everything kinda hurts? I mean, my side hurts a lot and my legs and arms just feel kinda sore.” He says sadly, staring up at the ceiling. Hayoung nods and hums, writing something else down. “It’s gonna take a while for you to recover fully, but it shouldn’t be so bad. Your friends will be here, and I’m sure you’ll get along with the others just fine.”

“Others?”

Hayoung nods and rolls away, putting the clipboard down and rearranging some vials she has around. “Yup. Besides me and Gyuri, we have some other friends living here as well. Counting you and your friends, there’s sixteen of us in total?” 

“Oh. Wow.” Mark says quietly. “Yup! There’s lots of us. I’m sure you’ll get along well with everyone.” She rolls around on her chair back to him. “Do you wanna sit up or are you okay like that?” She asks him. “...I’d like to sit up, please.” She helps him sit up, even if he does yelp in pain loudly. “Someone should be coming soon.” She says, scooting away from Mark’s side to back across the room.

Mark’s about to question what she means when the door suddenly opens, and his heart swells when he sees who’s in the doorway.

“Jeno.” He whispers.

Jeno’s eyes start to water, and he runs towards him quickly. “Oh my god, I was so worried about you.” Mark smiles when Jeno hugs him, pressing their foreheads together. “I missed you.” He says softly, running his hands through Jeno’s hair as tears stream down his face. “Don’t cry, baby.” 

Jeno sniffles as Mark wipes his tears away. “I can’t help it.” Mark laughs loudly, wrapping his arms around Jeno’s neck. “I’m here, I’m okay now, you don’t have to worry anymore.” 

The door suddenly gets kicked open, Jisung panting heavily from where he stands. “Mark!” Jeno scoots out of his way as Jisung runs to hug him, squeezing him a little too hard. “Jisung, I’m wounded. Please.” He winces, patting the back of his head. “Sorry!” He pulls away quickly, holding Mark’s face in his hands. “Never do that again! You gave us a heart attack!” He scolds, a scowl on his face. 

“Sorry, kiddo.” Mark chuckles, squeezing his hand tightly. Soon everyone else joins them, Jaemin presses a big kiss to his cheek, Mark giggling as he’s pulled into a giant hug by everyone. Everything seems to blur, soon they’re being shooed out so he can eat in peace and he falls asleep shortly after. He doesn’t rememner doing so, but he wakes up to the sound of faint shuffling in the room he’s in. 

“Morning.” Hayoung says quietly. She’s working on something he can’t make out, messing around with some liquids in some vials. “It’s morning?” Mark asks. She nods, eyes focused on what she’s doing. “Yup. It’s super early, the sun is just starting to rise.” Mark quietly goes “oh”, looking towards the door.

“...Can I go see?” He asks softly. Hayoung looks up, thinking for a moment. “It’s probably a bad idea for you to walk around just now, but we probably have a wheelchair around somewhere for you to use in the meantime. I’ll be right back!” She ducks out of the room for a second and comes back with an old wheelchair, helping him up and into it before showing him the outside. 

There’s a big empty spot near the back of the building that gives the perfect view, the sun starting to peak over the horizon. “Woah.” Mark gasps. Hayoung smiles, resting her hand on her hip. “Pretty, right?” He nods, sighing happily. “Can you like, leave me here for the next hour? I just wanna sit here and watch the sun rise.” She nods, leaving him be for the meantime.

Mark closes his eyes and sighs, basking in the sun. The sky is beautiful, shades of orange spread across the horizon. He feels calm, like he’s at peace. 

He feels a presence behind him, and a smile spreads across his face. 

“Hi Jeno.”

He looks over his shoulder and grins, seeing Jeno standing there looking dumb founded. “Hey. How’d you know it was me?” Mark shrugs, watching as he walks over and sits down next to him. “Just a hunch. Guess I was right.” Jeno laughs, the sweetest noise Mark’s heard. “That you were.”

Mark’s staring, he knows this, but he makes no effort to peel his eyes away from Jeno’s face. He’s just so pretty, especially in the morning light. “You’re up way earlier than usual. Something up?” Jeno asks, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Hm? No, my body just decided to wake me up now. I’ll probably end up going back to sleep later though.” 

Jeno nods, also staring at Mark. “Ah. I see.” Mark feels his brain stop working when Jeno looks at him. He makes the rash decision to hop out of the wheelchair and onto the floor so he can sit directly next to him, hissing the entire time he does so but smiling at Jeno once he gets down.

“What was that for?”

“I wanted to be next to you.”

“Oh. Cute.” Jeno giggles, holding Mark’s hand. Mark takes a shaky breath. There’s a lot on his mind, and he really needs to talk to him about the fact they kissed, but he’s nervous. Jeno scoots closer so their shoulders brush up against each other, and Mark can get a good look at his face. He can see every freckle and mole on his face, and he’s got bags under his eyes. His eyes sparkle whenever he looks at him, taking his breath away. 

“I love you.” He suddenly blurts out. Did he really just say that loud? Jeno blinks at him before his face softens. “I love you too.” Mark reaches for his face, cupping his cheeks with his hand. “I’ve loved you since we first met. God, Jeno. I’m in love with you.” He says softly. Jeno smiles, wrapping his arms around his neck. “I’ve been in love with you for what feels like forever.” Mark’s blushing bright red, unsure of what to say next. Jeno seems to take the words right from his mouth. 

“Mark. Kiss me.”

“What?”

“Kiss me. Please.” 

There’s no way Mark’s saying no. He closes his eyes and leans forward, letting their lips crash together. He can’t even begin to describe the feeling. It’s a proper kiss, not rushed out in a near death moment when they were both terrified. He feels giddy, giggling against Jeno’s lips. He pulls away, gaining a whine from Jeno.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.” Jeno whispers, running his hands up through Mark’s hair. Mark smirks. “Well, why don’t you do it again?” Jeno snorts, his cheeks turning pink. “Maybe I will.” 

And so he does.

It’s somehow better than the last kiss, making him feel tingly and dizzy at the same time. It feels like a dream, this has to be a dream. He knows he’s not dreaming when he pulls back to see Jeno’s bright face, a giant smile on his face. “Mark Lee, will you be my boyfriend?” He asks, holding both of his hands. Mark laughs, as if it’s the stupidest question he’s ever heard. “I thought you’d never ask.” 

Jeno rests his head on Mark’s shoulder, sighing happily. “This is nice. Can we stay like this for a while?” Mark grins and presses a kiss to his forehead, pulling him into his lap. “Of course, baby.” Jeno’s face turns red in embarrassment. “Does this mean we get to have pet names for each other now?” He asks shyly. Mark thinks for a moment and nods. “Absolutely.” 

They spend the next few minutes calling each other whatever pet names they can think of, ending with flushed faces and shy giggles. Jeno calls Mark ‘darling’ and he practically malfunctions, squealing and hiding his face in his hands. “Cute.” Jeno says teasingly. Mark responds by shoving him away with a huff.

“I’m going back inside. You’re going to kill me.” Mark groans, trying to hoist himself back onto the wheelchair. Jeno laughs and helps him up, plopping him into the seat. “Let’s go back inside. It’s super early anyways, we can go back to bed or something.” Mark reluctantly agrees, letting Jeno push him back inside. 

It’s still very quiet, only a few people already up and walking around. Mark sees some new faces he doesn’t recognize, surely the other friends Hayoung was talking about. “Hey Chaeyoung!” Jeno calls out to someone he sees heading towards the back. Chaeyoung looks up and smiles, waving at the pair. “Morning!” She skips over, a basket tucked under her arm. “Nice to see you up and early. You’re Mark, right? It’s nice to formally meet you.”

She holds her hand out for him to shake, Mark gladly shaking it with a small smile. “I think the only time I ever saw you was when you were being rushed in. Are you doing okay?” She asks him. Mark shyly nods. “That’s good.”

“Where’re you heading off to?” Jeno asks her, patting Mark on the back. She gestures towards her basket. “Just going out to the garden, like usual. Got some stuff that needs planting and picking and I gotta feed the chickens.” Mark gasps excitedly. “Can I see?” 

“Sure! I can show you around if you’d like.” She says happily. Mark looks back at Jeno with pleading eyes. He laughs softly. “You can go ahead if you like. I think I’m gonna go back to bed.” Mark hums sadly and pecks him on the cheek, waving as he walks off. Chaeyoung leads the way, showing him to an open space out to the side. 

It’s lovely, to say the least. There’s neat rows of vegetables planted together, and a chicken coop near the back with a few chickens walking around. “Woah.” Mark gasps, excited at the thought of gardening again. “Cool, right?” Chaeyoung says with a smile. “I can introduce you to the chickens if you’d like.” Mark nods excitedly, following her towards the coop. There’s around 12 chickens in total, all clucking happily and pecking at the ground. 

“Oh, they’re lovely.” Mark coos, watching as one circles his feet. “Do they have names?” She nods, spreading some feed on the ground for them. “Yup! The one next to you is Julia, that one’s Camilla—“ She lists off all of their names, giggling as they follow behind her. “They lay eggs for us too. And by the looks of it—“ She reaches into their coop and pulls out an egg, putting it into the basket she’s holding, “We’re having eggs for breakfast!” 

Mark cheers, scaring off the chickens near him. She collects the eggs and hands Mark the basket to hold, he can’t exactly get up and help so he’s given basket holding duty. He talks to Chaeyoung for a while, reminiscing about gardening back at the old house and their conversation eventually derailing into what type of Animal Crossing villager they’d be. 

“I feel like a peppy dog would suit me.” She says as she yanks a carrot out of the ground. “I always liked the peppy ones.” Mark hums in thought, swinging his legs slightly. “I’d probably be a cheetah of some kind. I think they’re neat. Personality wise? I’m not sure.”

Chaeyoung snorts. “Cranky.” Mark protests, cheeks turning pink. “I’m not cranky!” She laughs loudly, walking over towards him. “Your friends tell us otherwise. Especially Jisung, he likes making fun of you a lot.” Mark huffs, face now redder than before. “Is Jisung awake yet? I need to kick his ass.” She shakes her head, handing him a basket full of vegetables. “You’ll have to go and see. I’m done here, so we can go back inside now.” 

Chaeyoung helps him inside, more people already up and about since the last time they were there. He spots Jisung with Chenle, shouting to get his attention. Jisung jogs over, smiling brightly. “Morning!” Mark punches him in the arm, making him yelp in surprise. “Hey! What was that for?!” He pouts, smacking him upside the head. “You know what you did!”

They bicker continuously for the next few minutes, only stopping when Chaeyoung clears her throat and Jeno’s standing right next to them. “Hi.” He says loudly, startling the two brothers. Mark smiles, reaching out to hold his hand. “I see you’re up now.” They walk to the kitchen area together, Jeno pushing Mark along. “Sleep well?” He asks softly.

Jeno nods, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. My back hurts though. I guess it’s what I get for sleeping on the floor, I guess.” Mark giggles, patting his cheek. “You can sleep with me next time, hm?” A smile spreads across his face. “I like the sound of that.” 

Mark meets everyone else staying in the building that morning as he helps with breakfast. There’s Saerom, the respectable leader of all of them, Jiwon, who kinda scares him but she’s nice, Jisun with the bright eyes but deadly spike covered baseball bat, Seoyeon who he gets along with well as everyone hurries about the kitchen space, Nagyung who he chats with for awhile and Jiheon, who says Jisung is very easy to tease. He gives her a high five for that.

“God, there’s so many of us. It’s like a classroom.” Mark says as everyone sits to eat. Saerom shrugs slightly. “Yeah, it can get a little overwhelming at times, but we’ve been making it work.” Renjun yawns, rubbing his eyes with his fist. “It’ll probably get real quiet when we leave once Mark fully recovers.” Seoyeon laughs loudly. “I think the volume here will still be loud, just not as much. Not while half of these girls are still here, at least.”

They laugh, chattering all together as they finish eating. Mark gets to know them better as he slowly recovers, especially with Hayoung and Gyuri in the infirmary. The three of them get along well. It’s a long process, but the wait is worth it, he thinks. He doesn’t mind waking up to Jeno pressing soft kisses to his cheeks, though. Jeno holds his hand the entire way, both metaphorically and literally. He refused to let go of Jeno’s hand when he tried walking again for the first time, holding on so tightly his knuckles turn white.

They stay for a couple weeks, passing time by playing some board games laying around and spawning new inside jokes. (“Foot disease! It’s exactly what it sounds like.”) He’s pretty sure Jaemin screams so loud he goes deaf when they kiss in front of their friends for the first time. Mark’s sad when they have to leave, he liked it there. They’re a little (a lot) behind schedule for the road trip though, so it’s about time. He hugs Hayoung and Gyuri tightly before going. “Try not to get shot again, okay? You can come back here, but I’ll bonk you upside the head if you do.” Gyuri warns him. 

He chuckles softly. “No promises, sorry.” Hayoung flicks him on the arm. “I swear to god, Mark Lee. We’re serious.” He holds his hand up defensively and laughs. “Alright alright! I’ll try my best. I really can’t thank you guys enough, you really saved my ass.” Gyuri gives him a warm smile. “It was no problem. But you owe us now.” She says teasingly.

“Yeah! If by some circumstances we find ourselves in Florida with you guys, you owe us drinks or something like that.” Hayoung says cheerfully. Mark snorts, giving her a high five. “Alright, I promise I will. Seriously, it’s the least I can do for you saving my life. Thank you. I’ll miss you guys.” He hugs them one last time before he hops into the passenger seat with Jeno at the wheel. They all yell one final goodbye, waving out the windows before driving off. 

“I’m gonna miss them.” Chenle pouts from the back. Jeno chuckles, looking at him through the rearview mirror. “I know, I will too. But hey! We’re getting closer to our destination!” Everyone cheers at that, excited to see what would await them when they got there. Mark happily sighs as he leans back in the seat. It’s nice, they’re back on the road for the first time in a while and he’s right by Jeno’s side.

He mostly stares out the window, but out of the corner of his eye he can tell Jeno keeps looking at him. “Eyes on the road, baby.” Mark reminds him, giving him a teasing smile over his shoulder. Jeno sputters as his cheeks turn pink, making him laugh. “Cute.”

Mark’s also been using his old phone more, he takes a few pictures and videos here and there, just to capture some memories. He sets his phone up on the dashboard, pointed at the now setting sun. “Weren’t we supposed to switch a while back?” Mark asks. Jeno snorts. “Well, yeah. You started nodding off though, so I didn’t want to disturb you. Besides, I don’t mind.” Mark gently smacks him on the arm. “Jeno! Don’t do that. Let me drive a little next time.” Jeno chuckles as he puts a hand on Mark’s thigh. “No promises, babe.”

Mark snorts, eyes wandering back to the window. He realizes it’s weirdly quiet, he’s so used to the obnoxious talking that he just noticed the silence. He looks over his shoulder and everyone’s curled up, looking like they’re in the process of falling asleep. He laughs quietly, turning back to the front. “Looks like everyone’s all tuckered out.” He whispers. Jeno glances over and smiles. “It has been a long day. A long few weeks, actually. I wouldn’t mind joining them.”

Mark smiles, resting his head against the window. “We’ll stop for the night soon enough and you can rest too.” Jeno nods, patting his thigh. Mark lets out a sigh, closing his eyes slowly. He hums a familiar tune, eventually transitioning to soft, quiet singing. 

“Just close your eyes, soon we’ll be home, fall asleep to the radio. Strangers pass by, red green and gold, I wonder what they’re all waiting for.”

His voice is gentle, he’s unsure if anyone else can hear him but himself. He sings the entire song, his singing the only noise breaking the silence in the van. He hears quiet clapping behind him, looking over and seeing Jisung sitting with his legs crossed. “Still amazing as always.” He says sleepily. Mark huffs and pats the top of his head. “You startled me, kiddo.” Jisung giggles, resting his head on the seat. “Whoops.”

Jeno looks over, smiling at the younger boy. “Sleep well?” Jisung nods, letting out a long and loud yawn. “Chenle makes a good cuddle buddy. Where are we?” Mark shrugs and takes his phone off the dashboard, turning it off to conserve the little battery he has left. “I’m not sure, but we’re gonna stop for the night soon.” Jisung hums. “Alright. Want me to wake everyone up?” Mark looks at everyone else curled up together. “Nah, let them rest for a little while longer.”

They stop for the night in an old building (well, it can barely be called a building, half of the wall and ceiling is missing.), the starry sky looking down at them from above. Everyone’s tired, Renjun’s even trying not to fall asleep as he eats. “Don’t worry guys, we should be there practically by tomorrow afternoon.” Jaemin says, patting Donghyuck and Renjun on the shoulder. Renjun grunts, resting his head against his shoulder. . “When we get there, let’s move into an apartment together, and we can get a bird and name it Raspberry or something.” He mumbles. Donghyuck snorts, gently kissing the bridge of his nose. “Whatever you say, baby.” 

Mark looks up at Jeno. “What’re you doing?” Jeno’s looking around some of the debris, moving some fallen planks and other things around. “I just thought I heard something.” He walks back towards the group, suddenly turning back around when he hears something rustling about. There’s a few boxes scattered around, and he crouches down to investigate. He suddenly gasps, reaching inside it. “Did you find something?” Chenle calls.

Jeno stands back up, holding something in his cupped hands. “Look!” He coos, running back to the group. He’s holding a small black and white kitten in his hands, trembling from the cold air. Everyone collectively “Aww”s, crowding around him. “I knew I was hearing something. Can we keep her?” He pleads, scratching the kitten’s head. “Well, we just can’t leave her here.” Mark says affectionately. 

The kitten meows, pawing at Jeno’s fingers. “Why don’t you name her?” Jaemin suggests, resting his chin on Jeno’s shoulder. Jeno looks at the kitten’s face for a moment, watching as she opens her eyes and nibbles on his finger. “Yogurt.” He says. Mark snorts. “Yogurt?” Donghyuck laughs loudly. “It’s fitting, somehow.”

Jeno feeds Yogurt some of his food, grinning as she purrs in his lap. She also wanders around the area, stumbling and getting used to everyone.

Jisung scoots himself next to Mark, cuddling up to his side. “Psst. Can you...sing us a song? Please? Preferably something close to a lullaby.” Mark looks surprised for a second. “Me?” Everyone seems excited by the notion of Mark singing. “Yeah! Sing us a song, music man!” Chenle says excitedly. Mark reluctantly agrees. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, letting the words flow. He sings Sonatine, an old favorite of his. Donghyuck and Renjun immediately recognize the song, their faces lighting up in unison.

Jisung’s asleep in seconds, everyone else close to nodding off. He managed to sing Yogurt to sleep. “Wow. Your voice is beautiful, Mark.” Jaemin tells him, partly in awe. He blushes an embarrassed shade of red. “Aw, thanks.” Renjun lets out a long yawn. “You have a very lovely voice, bub. I think it’s time we head to bed, everyone’s all tuckered out.”

Mark and Jeno sleep together, Yogurt occupying the little space in between them. In the morning Yogurt gets put in Jeno’s hood, claiming it as her spot for the ride. Mark also claims Jeno’s side for himself, curling up against him almost immediately. “Alright, hopefully this’ll be the last time one of us has to ask this, but are you guys ready?” Donghyuck asks loudly as he taps the steering wheel.

“Yes!”

“Alright! Let’s get this show on the road!”

  
  


Mark sighs happily, yawning as Jeno runs his fingers through his hair. Yogurt’s walking around, sticking her little head anywhere she can. Chenle yawns loudly as he stretches out. “Are we there yet?” He asks. Jaemin groans as he smacks him on the arm. “This is the 20th time you’ve asked. I want you to take a fucking guess.” He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, opting to stare out the window. 

“Let’s play I Spy then! I spy with my little eye something that’s….green!”

“Everything around us is green!” 

“Well, guess!”

“The trees?”

Chenle shakes his head. “Nope!” 

“....the grass?”

“Nope.”

Jaemin throws his hands up. “Well then, I don’t know!” Chenle points at Jeno’s hoodie. “Duh. It’s the only green thing in this van.” Jaemin face palms and groans, opting to just annoy Renjun and Donghyuck in the front seat. Jisung laughs, patting Chenle on the back. Jeno calls for Yogurt, patting the spot he wants her to jump on. She jumps into his lap, curling up and falling asleep quickly. He giggles. “She’s just like you.” He looks over at Mark, who’s struggling to keep his eyes open. “Huh? What’dya say?” He mumbles. Jeno laughs, gently kissing his forehead. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

  
  
  


“Um, guys? Slight problem here.” Donghyuck says worriedly. Everyone looks up, staring at where his eyes are fixed. There’s a car pileup on the highway in front of them, as if they all had been abandoned in a rush. “Give me a minute.” He steps out of the van, jumping on the hood of one of the cars and looking over the road. He comes back inside and sighs, buckling up rather aggressively. “It goes on for a while. We’re gonna have to go around and off the road. Renjun, buckle up. Everyone else, hold on tight.” 

Everyone jerks around as he moves onto the grass, Jeno being thrown into Mark. It’s...unsettling to drive past all the empty cars, some with broken doors and smashed in windows, clearly destroyed in some freak accident he’s scared to find out about. Jeno puts Yogurt in his hoodie, her little head peeking out from the collar. The van suddenly stops, Mark smacking his head against the front seat. “So..Another problem? There’s like, 50 zombies walking around and they’re kinda blocking our way.” 

He’s right, Mark can hear the groans loud and clear from being both inside and a handful of feet away. They’ve made it so far, they’re not about to let a couple of walking dead bodies stop them. Renjun points to a gas station a little while down the road, and slightly clear of all the ghouls. “Try and head there. We can stop for a little bit as well.” 

Jisung whimpers and covers his eyes, hiding his face in Mark’s shoulder. “I can’t watch.” Mark holds him tight as they drive past the swarm, a couple of the zombies looking their way but none of them chase after. He taps his shoulder when they’re out of the way, for the most part. The gas station is empty (he hopes) save for their van and a couple of abandoned vehicles. “Ooo! Let’s steal that bus!” Jaemin points at an old yellow school bus in the corner of the gas station excitedly. 

“No, Nana. We’re not stealing any busses. Besides, we’ve started this journey with this van, and we’re ending it in it.” Donghyuck says, jabbing him in the side with his elbow. Renjun snorts. “Yeah, you can still see the blood from where Mark bled out on it.” Mark boos, sticking his tongue out at him. “That stain probably won’t come out any time soon.” 

“It gives it character!” Donghyuck jokes. They all laugh, a nice change of pace for a little bit. Jaemin eyes the gas station building. “Do you guys see that?” He says worriedly. Mark raises an eyebrow in confusion, not sure what he means. “Huh?” Jaemin points at the door, where there’s a figure standing there. In fact, there’s more. 

“Zombies.” He whispers. Almost as if they heard him, they charge at them quickly, growling and screaming hungrily at them. They’re a few yards from the van, they can’t run back quick enough without them catching up. They have to fight. Everyone grabs the nearest weapon, Jeno grabs a piece of shrapnel from the ground for self defense. “Be careful everyone! This is gonna get bloody.” Mark yells. 

It does, very quickly. 

Mark shoots and kicks and punches any zombies that come his way, and yet they still seem to be coming. Some of the zombies from the highway had noticed them and joined the rest of the zombies in trying to eat them. Mark’s grossly covered in blood, and from the glimpses of everyone he can catch quickly it seems like they are too. Jisung bumps into his back, the two brothers cornered by more ghouls. “Holding up well, kiddo?” He yells. Jisung laughs, gripping his bat tighter. “Could be better. Don’t tell me you’re losing your spark, old man!” Mark chuckles, shooting a charging zombie in the face. “I’m not that old! I’m still hot and young!” Jisung stomps another one in the face. “Keep telling yourself that!” 

They seperate, and the number of zombies gradually decreases. There’s only a few left, the rest can take care of them. Mark feels so tired, he’s bloody and he can’t tell what blood is his and what isn’t. He considers curling up into a little ball on the ground and passing out for a couple hours. He topples over onto the ground, too lazy to even consider getting up. He hears footsteps approaching him, but judging by the gurgling moans it’s not any one of his friends. Whatever, the zombie can eat him for all he cares.

He hears a crunch followed by a thud, feeling a shadow looming over him. “Mark, bub. Look at me, please.” He hears Jeno say, his fingers poking at his cheek to tilt it upwards. Mark slowly blinks his eyes open, groaning tiredly. Jeno smiles. “Good, You’re alive. Sit up for me, hm?” Jeno helps him up, Mark complaining the entire time. “I know, I know. You’re tired. They’re all gone. We should be good for now.” Mark grunts, resting his head against his shoulder. “How’s everyone else?” Mark mumbles.

They intertwine hands, except Mark’s are sticky with blood so it feels gross. “Basically the same as you. Jaemin refuses to get up. Jisung’s with Chenle, as expected, looks like he got hurt so he’s helping Chenle stand up. Chenle makes noises of disgust as he tries to shake the zombie blood and goop off of him. Mark frowns as he watches the two hobble towards the van. “And Yogurt?” Jeno wipes the blood from Mark’s face with his free hand. “I managed to sneak her into the van, so she’s all safe and sound.” Mark smiles weakly. “That’s good at least.”

He reaches his arms out towards Jeno, making a grabby hand motion. “Help me up, please.” Jeno laughs softly and pulls him up, wrapping an arm around his waist. Donghyuck and Renjun are still practically wrestling with Jaemin, struggling to get the younger up. “You guys okay over there?” Jeno calls. Renjun gives him a thumbs up, Donghyuck ultimately scooping Jaemin up in his arms. Chenle’s sitting on the back of the van, his feet swinging over the edge. “Is it just me or is that dot in the sky getting closer?” He asks, pointing towards the sky. 

Mark thinks he’s delirious from the blood loss, but he’s right. There is something getting closer to them. Judging by the noises, it appears to be a helicopter. A big one, at that. It lands nearby them, and two people hop out and walk towards them. One’s really tall with his hair slicked back, while the other is shorter and more casual. They’re both wearing sunglasses, removing them once they get a few feet away from them. “Thought you guys could use some help, but looks like you got it handled.” The tall one says.

“Who are you?” Jisung asks skeptically. 

“Well, I’m Yukhei.”

“And I’m Taeil.”

Mark gasps. He recognizes that name. “It’s you! From the twitter! With the tweet about the city!” He says loudly, making a vague hand gesture as if he’s looking for his phone. Taeil smiles. “I knew it’d managed to reach someone. I’m guessing you guys were on your way there already?” They nod awkwardly. “That means we don’t have to do any explaining or anything. We patrol this area a lot, in hopes of finding some new people. We saw all the zombies and your van, so we thought we’d check it out. Would you guys like a ride with us? It’d be much faster than driving all that way.”

The seven of them look at each other. “Can we bring the van?” Jeno asks. Yukhei looks at the van and back at the helicopter. “Yeah, there’s probably enough room. It is a cargo aircraft after all.”

“Nice! Let’s go!”

They fit the van inside, and there’s still enough space for all of them to sit comfortably in the helicopter. Taeil tells them a little bit more about the city (Neo City is what it’s being currently called) and the population, how well society is doing, all that jazz. They seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. Mark stops paying attention halfway through, opting to shortly nap on Jeno’s shoulder. He’s jolted awake when they land, being ushered out of the helicopter to some big scary white building. They stand out a lot from some doctor’s that pass by, covered in scars and bruises and blood from head to toe. 

They’re dropped off at the infirmary before so they can wash all the blood off (they’re even given a new pair of clothes) and any injuries can be checked out. (Renjun makes Jaemin shower first, he says he smells the worst.) After that, they’re taken to a waiting room sort of space, plain white walls with random paintings to try and give it life. Mark sits next to Jeno, his bag right between his feet. He looks over at Jeno, and smiles. They’re fresh out of the shower so his hair is damp, and in his new shirt and jeans he looks handsome. He’s perfect, Mark thinks to himself. 

Jeno seems to notice his staring because he looks over at Mark, making him blush. “Hi. How’re you feeling?” He asks. Mark looks around. “Honestly? This doesn’t feel real.” Jeno laughs. “Oh I feel ya. It’s so...surreal.” Mark nods in agreement. “At least I have you with me.” He blushes, squeaking and looking away. 

They’re interrupted when the door opens, and a tall doctor walks in. His eyes are on a clipboard he’s holding, not looking up even when he enters the room. Mark freezes. Jisung can’t believe his eyes. “Alrighty, you guys came from the wasteland? There’s a c—“

“Johnny?”

He looks up. That’s Johnny alright. Their oldest brother they thought that died along with their parents somehow long ago. He’s alive and breathing, standing right in front of them. He looks older, and a little bit more tired. Johnny drops his clipboard. “Oh my god. Oh my god.”

Mark and Jisung run forward, tackling him in a hug. “You guys are alive! You’re okay! How the hell is this possible!” Johnny laughs, sounding like he’s on the verge of tears. Mark’s already crying. “We could be asking you the same thing!” He picks them up and spins them around, laughing as he puts them back down and pulls out of the hug. “It’s a really long story. And you guys?” 

Mark and Jisung share a look. “Same for us.” Johnny smiles and ruffles their hair, picking up his clipboard back off the floor. “I’m glad you guys are okay, though. Did you find mom and dad on your way?” Mark scratches the back of his neck. “Well….you see….”

“They’re dead.” Jisung says bluntly. Mark smacks him upside the head. “Jisung!” Johnny chuckles softly, shaking his head. “No, it’s okay. I should’ve expected that. I’m gonna have to tell you guys everything once I get the chance. But for now, I assume these are the friends you found along the way?” They look back at the rest of their friends, awkwardly watching the brothers reunite. “Oh yeah! Johnny, meet….everyone. Everyone, meet Johnny. He’s our brother.” Mark says excitedly.

“There’s another one of you?” Renjun says sarcastically. Johnny snorts. “Unfortunately. Don’t blame me though, I came first.” They laugh, introducing each of them to Johnny. Jisung whispers something to him when Jeno introduces himself that makes him narrow his eyes at him. Mark feels concerned. Johnny explains how they have a few things to do, they’re gonna be taken to a different room to answer questions and take a bunch of blood tests and medical shit like that. Mark feels nervous, but Jeno gives him a kiss before he goes in so he feels a little better. And another plus, Johnny is the one asking him a bunch of questions.

They’re a bunch of questions he should’ve expected, have you gotten bitten, come into contact with someone who was bitten, etc. It’s weirdly formal, but he hasn’t talked to Johnny in years so of course the air is kind of awkward. He has to get some blood tests and test for virus, so Johnny walks him all the way to the room. “So...that Jeno boy, huh? Is he treating you well?” Johnny asks with a smirk. Mark blushes wildly. “Did Jisung tell you?” He nods slowly. Mark struggles to keep his face from burning brighter. “Yeah...I really love him.” Johnny’s got a big goofy grin on his face. “That’s good. It’s what you deserve.”

Mark quickly gets his tests done (even if he does ask Johnny to hold his hand) and returns to the waiting room, ready to hop right back next to Jeno but he’s called the moment he steps inside, so it’s a short lived moment. Mark pouts until he comes back, excitedly hugging him once he sits back down. “Your brother had a go at me.” He laughs, kissing Mark’s face. “Oh yeah? What’d he do?” Jeno snorts. “Pulled the whole ‘if you hurt him I hurt you’ thing. He’s very intimidating when he wants to be.” 

“Ah, I should’ve expected that, honestly. Sorry about that.” Mark says shyly, shifting so he’s sitting in Jeno’s lap. He kisses up Jeno’s neck, making him giggle shyly. “It’s alright.” They cuddle closer until everyone is done, and Taeil enters the room again. He hands them Yogurt, who was taken away to get bathed and fed properly. “Alright so here’s the rundown. We can provide you guys a place to quarantine for a couple weeks before you guys can go into the city, just for safety, ya know? And even after that, if you wanna move out and pair up and get your own apartment we can help you guys with that. Does that sound okay?” He asks everyone. They all nod in agreement.

“Alright, cool. It’s a nice space, I promise you. It’s very big, can fit up to 10 people, and you guys are on the top floor! It’s a lovely view, especially the sunset. I think you guys are gonna enjoy your time here.” Taeil leads them to a separate equally tall building, up an elevator and down a few hallways before stopping before a room. He hands each of them a key, talking as he does so. “We’ll send over people, probably Johnny, to check up on you guys every once and awhile. You guys settle in, and there’s a phone with a number you can call if you need anything. Take care guys!” 

He waves and leaves them alone, standing in front of the doorway. “Mark, do you wanna do the honors?” Jisung asks, pocketing his key. “I guess? Unless anyone else wants to do it.” They shake their heads. “Alright! Guess I’m doing it.” He slots his key in, turning it slowly and opening the door. They all step inside, and it’s beautiful. It’s more like a loft, and there’s a giant window where they have a perfect view of the city and everything around them. “Woah.” He gasps.

He walks over towards the window, staring at the skyline. The sun is starting to set, and it’s lovely, just like Taeil said. He turns back around, everyone in awe. “We did it guys. We made it.” He whispers. He sniffles, and tears start streaming down his face. Everything seems to be hitting at once. “We did it.” Jeno repeats. “We’re safe now.”

Suddenly everyone’s in a big group hug, holding onto each other as tight as they can and crying. Mark smiles and laughs, even if he’s sobbing. They’ve come so far, it feels like last week he was running with Jisung as the city crumbled around them. Now, all seven of them stand together in that apartment, still feeling like it’s all a dream.

They did it.

They made it.

  
  


—————————————————

Mark groans when he feels the early morning sunlight hit his face. It’s too early to be up. His comforter is too warm, he’s like a hazy little puddle all bundled up. He feels something poking his cheek which he swats away. “Myehh Yogurt, go away. Go annoy Jeno or something.” He whines, pulling the blanket over his head. The blanket is slowly pulled away, a kiss being pressed to his cheek and slowly trailing down his neck. “No can do, baby.” A familiar voice says. More kisses are peppered into his face, making him giggle softly. He looks over his shoulder and he’s greeted by a warm smile. It’s like being woken up by an angel, the way the sun shines on him. “Oh. Hi Jeno.” He mumbles sleepily.

Jeno brushes some of his hair from his face. “Hi. It’s morning.” Mark snorts, rolling back over. “I thought I told you I don’t start functioning until noon.” Jeno sits down, sneaking his hand up his shirt and rubbing his back. “I know I know, It's just lonely without you I thought I’d try waking you up.”

It’s been a month or so since they arrived in the city. They got their own apartment just to themselves, which is nice. Yogurt has grown up well, and they adopted a saint bernard named Lucky. Mark enjoys it, waking up either to Jeno kissing him awake or one of the pets jumping on him. They can also cuddle the whole morning away, which he loves. Mark has a job now as well, he works at the Bear & Bunny Diner, and he’s made a couple of friends with his coworkers there. Jeno’s also working, he’s an assistant to some doctors in the hospital. Their lives are rowdy, but Mark loves it.

Besides the abundant freetime they now have, they spend much of their time wrapped around each other. Mark likes making Jeno lie down so he can count his freckles, even if Jeno can’t stand it. He’s never counted all of them, and Jeno always seems to distract him before he can finish, but it’s not so bad if he ends up making out with Jeno for an hour. 

“Well, try again later.” Mark grumbles, still trying to hide away. Still stubborn as always, Jeno thinks to himself. Jeno jabs him in the sides, making him yelp in surprise. “Come oooooon. I made us coffee, and Lucky’s sitting on the balcony waiting for us. Whaddya say?” Jeno looks at him with his puppy dog eyes, which he knows Mark’s weak for. “Fine! I’m up, I’m up.” He groans, letting Jeno pull him by the arm.

The sky is a light blue outside, barely a cloud in sight. Lucky’s laying on his stomach, a big doggy smile on his face. There’s two cups of coffee on the little table, one for Jeno and one for Mark. He shuffles over, rolling up the shirt he’s wearing that’s way too big for him and sitting down in one of the chairs. Mark picks up his designated mug, softly blowing on it for it to cool down. He takes a sip and sighs. It’s peaceful. 

As he sits there, he can’t help but think. About how he met Jeno, about how they got here, about the long journey. It was all so excruciating, yet somehow worth it. Mark wonders what would've happened if they didn’t enter that house. Would they even be here right now?

“You’ve got your thinking face on. Anything on your mind?” Jeno asks, looking over at him with a small smile. Mark hums, sipping from his coffee. “Nothing in particular. Just us, and how we got here. It’s been a long way, hasn’t it?” Jeno nods, taking a slow drink. “Mhm. It’s a miracle we’re still standing. But you know what?”

“What?”

Jeno leans in to Mark, softly pressing a kiss to his lips. “I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything in the world. I love you.” Mark leans back in for another kiss. “I love you too.” Mark moves so he can sit in his lap, resting his head against his shoulder. He kisses Jeno’s jaw, smiling when he snorts in surprise. He cups his cheeks with a grin, pinching Jeno’s cheeks. He laughs, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. 

“I might be the luckiest guy in the world, I think.” Jeno says with a smirk. Mark raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Why?” Jeno gives a peck, nuzzling his face into his cheek. “Because I get to call you my boyfriend.” Mark giggles, cheeks turning pink. “No, I think I’m the luckiest. I have someone like you with me.” He teases, running his fingers through Jeno’s hair. Jeno snorts, blushing and looking away. Mark pouts, turning his face back towards him. He laughs, capturing Jeno’s lips in a kiss. “You’re a dork.”

“Yeah, but I’m your dork.”

As they kiss under the gentle morning sun, Mark thinks a little bit more. This is the happiest he’s felt in so long. Kissing the person he loves so much, sitting close in their apartment they share and call home.

For the first time in a very long while, Mark is okay.

**Author's Note:**

> you made it waahhh!! pls feel free to leave comments or kudos or anything i’d really appreciate it :]
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